I  pics 


•^Ifl 


PEE FACE. 


In  the  following  pages  wiU  be  found  a  record  of  the  long 
and  eventful  career  of  the  late  D«.  Eicharz>  Eobekt  Mabden, 
of  whom  a  recent  writer  has  observed— 

"  Few  men  have  ever  seen  so  much  of  the  world 
mmgled  in  more  stirring  scenes,  or  with  persons  of  greater 
emmence,  or  accomphshed  a  larger  share  of  useful  and 
permanent  work  than  that  brave  old  man.  whose  talents 
are  attested  in  each  and  all  of  his  forty  published  volumes; 
and  whose  hfe  is  well  worthy  of  being  chi-onicled,  not  only 
on  account  of  its  almost  romantic  character,  but  also  because 
o  his  emmence  as  a  litUraUur,  and  his  achievements  as  a 
pnilantrophist." 

For  this  Memoir  Dk.  Mabben  left  abundant  materials, 
mcludmg  his  personal  reminiscences  of,  and  correspond- 
ence with,  many  remarkable  literary  and  political  person- 
ages,  at  home  and  abroad.  How  far  these  have  been 
advantageously  utilised  in  the  present  volume  it  remains  for 
the    reader  to  decide. 

KK  ,.      .      „  T.    MOBE   MADDEN, 

66  Mertion  Square,  Dublin,  1891, 

^^>  Q  P  '< 

L.?  *?  U  '^> 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I._l798.-I)r.  Madden'.  Birth  and  Tarcntagc    .. 
CHAPTER  II.— School-Days— Reminiscences    of    Curran.— 

Commencement  of  Medical  Education. 
CHAPTER  III.— Early  Career  in  Paris,  1820— Rome  and  Naples 

in  J  82 1 -22. 

CHAPTER  IV.— Residence  and  Press  life  in  London  in  1823. 

vSecond  Visit  to  Naples 
CHAPTER    V.-First  Visit   to     the    East.-Medical    Practice 

in  Constantinople 
CHAPTER  VJ.-Crete  During  Greek  War  of  Independence 
CHAPTER  VII.— Residence  in  Egypt,  1825-27 
CHAPTER  Vlll.-Journey  through  Palestine 
CHAPTER  IX.— Reminiscences  of  Continental  Celebrities      . . 
CHAPTER  X.-Theatrical  Recollections 
CHAPTER  XI.— Return  to  England.— Marriage  with  Miss  H. 

Elmslie 
CHAPTER  XII.— Residence  in  the  West  Indies     . . 
CHAPTER  XIII.— Contest  with  Jamaica  Slave-Owners 
CHAPTER  XIV.— Anti-Slavery  Work  in  Cuba,  1886-39 


PAGE 

1 


20 
27 

n2 

11 

49 
56 

60 
()5 
70 
74 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  XV.— Cuban  Life  (Continued)               ..               ..  80 

CHAPTER  XVI.— Account  of  First  Visits  to  America               . .  S6 

CHAPTER  XVII.— Secoud  and  Third  Visit  to  United  States  102 
CHAPTER  XVIII.— Mission  to  Egypt  with  Sir  Moses  Monte- 

fiore. — Official  Visit  to  West  Coast  of  Africa  . .  110 
CHAPTER  XIX. -Notice  of  L.  E.  L.— Paris  in  18^3. -Sketch 

of  Eeranger  the  Poet                     ..                 ..                 ..  U7 

CHAPTER  XX.— Account  of    Dr.    Madden's  Early   Published 

Works        ..                 ..                 ..                 ..                 ..  121 

CHAPTER  XXL— Poetical  Writings,  Specimens  of  these        ..  123 
CHAPTER  XXII.— Publication  of  "History  of  United   Irish- 
men"        ..                 ..                 ..                 ..                 ..  163 

CHAPTER    XXIII.  —  Correspondence    with    Sir    William 

Napier,  S:c.            . .                 . .                 . .                 . .  166 

CHAPTER  XXIV.— Accouut  of  Dr.   Madden's  Other  Literary 

Works        ..                ..                 ..                 ••                 ..  174 

CHAPTER  XXV. —Gore  House  and    its  Reminiscences. — The 

Story  of  Lady  Blessington               ..                 ..                 ..  17  6 

CHAPTER  XXVL— Count  D'Orsay       ..                ..                 ..  184 

CHAPTER  XXVIL— Residence  in  Portugal,  1843-1846            . .  189 

CHAPTER  XXVIII.— Selections  from  Correspondence  ..  194 
CHAPTER  XXIX.— Residence  and  Work  in  Western  Australia, 

as  Colonial  Secretary,  1847-48       ..                ..                «.  223 

CHAPTER  XXX.— Return  to  Ireland  in  18A9  . .  . .  234 
CHAPTER  XXXI.— Account  of  Condition  of  Ireland  duiipg  the 

Famine  Years              ..                ..                ..                ..  ,  231 

CHAPTER  XXXII.— Dr.  Maddqn's  Report  on  the.  Irish  Fan^inp 

Period        ..                ..                ..                ,.                ..  243. 

CHAPTER  XXXIII.— Account  of  Subsequently  Published  Works  254 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV.-Notice  of  Literary  Labours  (Continued) 

CHAPTER  XXX V.—Life  and  Work  from  1861  to  '67 

CHAPTER  XXXVI— Correspondence  with  Mr.  John  Bright,  &c. 

CHAPTER  XXXVn.-Dr.  Maddon's  Last  Published  Worksand 

Correspondence 

••  ••  •• 

CHAPTER  XXXVIIL-Retirement  from  Loan  Fund  Board  in  1880 
CHAPTER  XXXIX.-Dr.  Madden's  Death  in  1  88g 
APPENDIX  No.  I.-Genealogical,     Historical,     and     Family 
Records  of  the  O'.Aradden's  of  Hy-Many 
No.  2.-The  Abbey  of  Meelick,  its  Founders  and 

their  Descendants 

•  •  •  • 

No.  3.-Notice    of    Mr.    Jolin    Patten,     Emmet's 
Brother-in-Law 

„  ^'o-  4.— John  Cornelius  O'Callaghaii 

INDEX 


PAGE 

25y 

260 

26:J 

20<) 
•■272 

278 

28;j 
295 

:313 


•-'^^^iX^aCfXD^-^-v^ 


MEMOIKS 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN 


chaptp:r  i. 


BIRTH    AND    PAEENTAGE. 


Throughout  life,  iiii  interest  in  the  atiairs  of  the  Irish  lusiuTection- 
arv  movement  of  171)8,  and  of  those  that  figured  therein,  whose 
memory  I  have  endeavoured  to  preserve  and  vindicate  in  my  History 
of  the  United  Irishmen,  has  heen  a  sort  of  ruHng  passion  with  me. 
This  is  perhaps  ascribahle  to  the  circumstance  of  my  liaving  been 
ushered  into  the  world  in  that  memorable  year  in  the  midst  of  a 
rebellion,  the  councils  of  which  were  carried  on  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  my  father's  abode  in  Wormwood-gate.  On  the  day  of 
my  birth,  August  20th  1798,  that  house  was  searched  for  arms  by 
the  notorious  IMajor  Sirr,  attended  by  a  company  of  yeomanry,  a 
privileged  banditti,  who  then  carried  terror  and  consternation 
into  every  dwelling  of  a  Roman  Catholic  however  peacefully 
disposed  he  might  be.  After  ransacking  without  interruption 
the  lower  part  of  the  house,  they  were  repulsed  at  the  door  of  my 
mother's  room  by  her  husband,  who  exposed  his  life  to  imminent 
danger  in  so  doing,  and  was  only  rescued  from  it  by  the  sudden 
appearance  of  Major  Sirr,  who  rushed  upstairs  and  prevented  the 
armed  marauders  from  bursting  into  the  apartment,  saying  :  "  I  know 
Mr.  Edward  IMadden  to  be  a  peaceable  citizen."  This  in  those 
days  -was  saying  a  good  deal  for  a  person  who  was  one  of  "  The 
Catholic  Delegates "  mentioned  in  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone's 
Memoirs.  These  few  words,  however,  saved  Mrs.  Madden,  and 
perhaps  her  infant,  from  the  consequence  of  so  untimely  a  visit,  and 
it  must,  perhaps,  be  admitted  that  the  Major's  courtesy  was  not  duly 
requited  by  the  latter  in  his  manhood. 

2 


MEMOIES 


At  that  time,  and  for  many  years  previous  to  the  close  of  the 
last  century  my  father,  Edward  Madden,  was  an  eminent  manufac- 
turer in  the  city  of  Dublin.  He  was  a  man  of  great  worth,  probity 
and  piety.  Before  the  Union  he  had  amassed  considerable  means, 
but  like  most  others  engaged  in  commerce  in  Ireland,  he  gradually 
declined  in  prosperity  from  the  date  of  that  calamitous  event.  Even 
then,  however,  he  was  not  a  young  man,  having  been  born  in 
November  1739,  the  son  of  Mr.  John  Madden  of  Kilternan,  county 
Dublin,  who  was  married  to  an  English  lady,  Miss  Lee  of  Maccles- 
field. My  father  commenced  business  on  the  Merchants  Quay  as  a 
silk  manufacturer,  at  that  period  one  of  the  leading  industries  of  this 
country.  Thence,  in  1768  he  removed  to  No.  9  Wormwood-gate, 
where  he  built  a  very  extensive  factory  and  dwellinghouse,  where  he 
lived  for  sixty  years,  held  by  those  who  knew  him  of  all  classes  and 
creeds,  in  honour,  for  his  sterling  merit.  He  was  twice,  and  each  time 
happily  married.  First  circa  1705,  to  Miss  Duras,the  sister  of  Edward 
Duras,  a  wealthy  manufacturer  of  Bordeaux,  by  whom  he  had  issue 
ten  children ;  and  secondly,  in  1 7  7  7,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Forde,  youngest 
daughter  of  Thaddeus  Forde,  of  Corry,Innismagrath,  county  Leitrim, 
by  which  marriage  he  had  eleven  children,  of  whom  I  was  the  youngest. 

In  the  91st  year  of  his  age — the  20th  of  November  1830 — he 
died,  with  the  best  of  all  claims  to  consideration,  that  of  being  an 
honest  man.  It  may  be  pardonable  in  me — the  last  living  of  his  twenty- 
one  children — to  say  a  few  more  words  of  so  good  a  father.  He  had  in 
effect  many  friends,  and  few — probably  not  any — enemies  ;  for  it  was 
the  rule  of  his  life  never  to  speak  ill  of  any  human  being,  and  his 
constant  precept  to  all  around  him — "when  they  had  nothing  good 
to  say  of  the  absent  or  the  dead,  to  pass  their  failings  by  in  silence." 
One  trait  in  his  character  was  strongly  marked,  namely,  a  lively 
feeling  of  humanity  for  every  living  creature  that  God  has  given  for 
our  use,  or  that  is  dependent  on  our  care.  He  keenly  felt  for  the 
sufferings  of  the  poor,  and  was  prompt  to  relieve  them.  The 
representative  of  an  ancient  family,'''  whose  descendants,  despoiled  of 
their  patrimony  in  penal  times,  were  subsequently  content  to  be 
allowed  in  peace  to  earn  their  bread  in  their  own  land  ; — Edward 
Madden  was  not  umnindful,  in  the  principles  which  regulated  his 
life,  of  the  obligations  of  his  creed  and  hneage.  In  days  when  per- 
secution was  abroad,  and  our  venerable  prelates  and  worthiest  divines 
found  dithculties  and  even  danger  attendant  on  their  annual  visit  to 
the  metropolis,  his  house  was  open  to  them,  and  for  many  years 
his  hospitality  was  acceptable.  The  same  prudence  that  guided  his 
principles  in  private  life  directed  his  pohtical  sentiments  ;  he  loved  his 
native  country  with  the  ardour  of  a  Christian  patriot,  and  in  the  worst 
of  times  he  was  loyal  to  his  king,  not  for  expediency,  but  "  for  con- 
science' sake." 

*  Vi  le .' ppendiso 


t)R.    R.    R.    MADDEN. 


My  mother  was  the  youngest  daughter  of  Thaddeus  Forde,  Esq. 
of  Corry,  county  Leitrim,  by  his  marriage  with  Miss  Lyons,  of 
Lyonstown,  county  Roscommon.*  Her  father  died  in  1759,  and, 
three  or  four  months  previously  her  mother  died  also.  Their 
youngest  daughter,  Elizabeth,  was  born  in  1754.  After  the  death 
of  her  parents  she  resided  at  Lyonstown,  the  seat  of  her  uncle, 
Myles  Lyons,  until  her  eighteenth  or  twentieth  year,  when 
she  came  up  to  Dublin  to  her  sister,  Mrs.  Reilly's  house.  After 
some  time  she  became  a  boarder  in  a  convent,  and  there  continued  to 
reside  to  the  date  of  her  marriage.  She  was  remarkable  not  only  for 
her  personal  attractions,  but  also  for  the  sweetness  and  brightness 
of  her  disposition,  in  which  (ere  time  and  many  troubles  had  done  their 
work  on  her  heart  and  its  fondest  hopes)  was  reflected  a  joyous  sere- 
nity that  well  accorded  witli  those  religious  sentiments  which  at  all 
times  were  uppermost  in  her  mind. 

If  natures  best  gifts  and  advantages  afforded  a  reliable  ground 
of  hope  and  promise  for  the  secure  possession  of  happiness  in  this 
world,  much  felicity  might  have  been  hoped  for  her  career  in  it. 
It  pleased  God,  however,  to  reserve  her  happiness  for  life  eternal ; 
and  here,  to  render  one  so  good  more  worthy  of  its  best  rewards, 
she  was  tried  with  many  grievous  afflictions,  and  she  was  sanctified 
by  them.  Honoured  by  the  clergy  of  her  Church  for  her  worth  and 
piety,  she  enjoyed  the  esteem  and  friendship  of  many  of  the  most 
eminent  Prelates  and  Priests  of  Ireland  of  her  time.  Her  hospitality 
was  valued  by  such  men  as  Bishop  Delany,  Bishop  McGauran, 
Dr.  Betagh,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Gahan  :  and  in  their  sickness  and  at  the 
hour  of  death,  it  was  her  privilege  to  minister  to  some  of  the  most 
saintly  of  them.  Beloved  by  the  poor,  not  only  for  her  charity,  but  also 
for  the  soothing  kindness  with  which  this  was  exercised  : — endeared 
to  her  family  for  the  tenderness  of  her  afl"ection,  every  member  of  it 
felt  there  was  reason  to  be  proud  of  such  a  mother  ; — and  the  last  of 
those  children,  for  whose  welfare  here  and  hereafter  to  her  latest 
moment  she  prayed,  cherishes  her  memory,  venerates  her  virtues, 
and  attributes  to  her  prayers  every  deliverance  from  evil  and  danger, 
and  many  blessings  tJiat  have  come  to  him  or  his.  In  her  75th 
year,  on  the  21st  JMarch  1829,  full  of  hope  in  her  Redeemer,  she 
(lied  the  death  of  a  truly  Christian  woman. 


*  Thaddeus  Forde  was  the  last  of  the  race  of  the  Macansnahas  of  Munsterkenny  (a  territory 
of  which  they  were  the  chiefs,  and  of  whom,  in  conjunction  with  the  O'Kourkes  of  Breifny, 
much  mention  is  made  in  our  ancient  annals),  who  possessed  a  remnant  of  their  old  territory 
in  the  vicinity  of  Corry— a  promontory  jutting  into  Lough  Allen,  in  front  of  the  island  of 
Iiinismagrath, 


MEMOIRS 


CHAPTEK    II. 

SCHOOL-DAYS. 

The  first  scliool  I  was  sent  to  was  that  of  Mv.  Chaigneau,  of 
Usher-street ;  then  to  that  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Farrell,  of  Coldblow- 
lane,  Donnybrook  ;  and  next  to  that  of  the  Rev.  Barnaby  Murphy, 
of  North  Anne-street. 

An  uncle  of  ray  mother's,  Robert  Lyons,  a  younger  brother  of 
Myles  Lyons,  of  Lyonstown,  a  very  weU-known  and  eccentric 
attorney  who  resided  in  Stephen's-green,  was  not  very  remarkable 
for  making  himself  agreeable  to  people  in  general,  and  to  members 
of  his  family  in  particular.  He  was  pleased,  however,  to  notice  me 
a  good  deal,  and  in  return  for  his  civility  I  assumed  the  name  of 
Robert.  It  used  to  be  a. subject  of  surprise,  why  I  should 
be  a  favourite  of  his,  not  being  a  very  demonstrative,  bright,  or 
communicative  boy,  but,  on  the  contrary,  as  he  was  pleased  to 
describe  me,  a  quiet,  retiring  "  mope  of  a  boy  ;"  "  a  poor  soft  child." 
By  the  desire  of  this  uncle  of  mine  I  was  sent  to  the  school  of 
the  Rev.  Edward  JMartin,  of  York-street,  close  to  his  house.  Mr. 
Martin  w^as  a  Protestant  clergyman,  a  distinguished  scholar,  and  a 
Professor  of  Trinity  College.  He  w^as,  moreover,  truly  just  and 
liberal.  His  school  was  the  best  in  Dubhn  of  its  day,  and 
although  a  Protestant  one,  it  was  remarkable  in  its  management : 
not  one  word  that  could  be  considered  offensive  to  Catholic  ears  was 
ever  to  be  heard  in  that  school  on  the  part  of  the  master,  ushers, 
or  pupils.  On  Saturdays  about  noon  the  worthy  pedagogue, 
I  weU  remember,  used  to  caU  up  the  Catholic  boys  and  say  to 
them  :  Now,  my  dear  children,  as  you  learn  your  catechism  at  home, 
and  the  other  boys  are  now  about  to  learn  theirs,  you  may  go. 
I  have  often  contrasted  my  experience  of  some  sixty  years  ago  in 
this  matter  of  mixed  education  with  what  has  come  to  my  knowdedge 
of  the  conduct  that  is  now  pursued  in  regard  to  Catholic  children  in 
similar  circumstances,  and  I  must  say  things  have  by  no  means 
improved. 

I  was  in  the  habit  occasionally  after  scliool  hours  of  caUing  on  my 
grand-uncle  in  his  office,  Stephen's-green.  Curran  used  to  visit 
him  there  frequently,  and  on  several  occasions  I  had  the  privilege 
of  being  patted  on  the  head  and  receiving  a  few  encouraging  words 
from  Mr.  Curran.  From  that  time,  emboldened,  I  suppose,  by 
the  kind  look  and  words  of  the  great  little  man,  it  became  a  fixed 
habit  of  mine,  in  term  time,  to  hurry  after  school  was  over  to  the 
Four  Courts  to  pull  off  my  cap  to  the  celebrated  orator  as  he 
>vas  leaving  the  Rolls  court.     "When    Curran   was   hving  on  Hog- 


DR.     R.     R.     MADDEN. 


hill'''  in  obscurity,  the  first  brief  he  received  was  given  t6  him  by 
my  maternal  uncle.  The  account  of  this  matter  in  Mr.  Philips's 
"  Recollections,"  is  given  in  Curran's  own  w^ords  : — "I  had  a 
family  for  whom  I  had  no  dinner,  and  a  landlady  for  whom 
I  had  no  rent.  I  had  gone  abroad  in  despondence  —I  returned 
home  almost  in  desperation.  When  I  opened  the  door  of  my  study, 
where  Lavater  alone  could  have  found  a  library,  the  hrst  object 
which  presented  itself  was  an  immense  folio  of  a  brief,  twentv 
golden  guineas  wrapped  up  beside  it,  and  the  name  of  old  Bob 
Lyons  marked  on  the  back  of  it.  I  paid  my  landlady,  bought  a 
good  dinner,  gave  Bob  Lyons  a  share  of  it,  and  that  dinner  was  the 
date  of  my  prosperity." 

Perhaps  the  reader  may  feel  some  interest  attached  to  the 
person  of  the  man  who  thus  held  out  to  Curran  the  hand  of 
encouragement  when  he  was  trembling  on  the  pivot  of  his  destiny — 
Ptobert  Lyons,  the  attorney,  was  a  perfect,  but  indeed  a  very 
favourable  specimen  of  a  class  of  men  now  quite  extinct  in  Ireland, 
and  never  perhaps  known  in  any  other  country  in  creation.  They 
were  a  kind  of  compound  of  the  rackrent  Squire  and  the  sharp  law 
practitioner,  extravagant  and  usurious,  honourable  and  subtle,  just 
as  their  education  or  their  nature  happened  to  predominate  at  the 
moment.  Plausible  in  his  manners  and  hospitable  in  his  habits, 
those  who  feared  him  for  his  undoubted  skill  as  a  practitioner, 
esteemed  him  for  his  convivial  qualities  as  a  companion.  Nor  had 
even  his  industry  the  ill-favour  of  selfishness.  If  he  gained  all  he 
could,  still  he  spent  all  he  gained  :  and  those  who  marvelled  at  the 
poverty  of  his  neighbourhood,  could  easily  liave  counted  his  personal 
acquisitions.  No  matter  who  might  be  the  poorer  for  him,  he  was 
richer  for  no  man  :  in  short,  it  seemed  to  l)e  tlie  office  of  his  left 
hand  lavishly  to  expend  what  his  right  hand  assiduously  accumulated. 
When  I  first  became  acquainted  with  him,  although  he  had  reaped 
the  harvest  of  two  thirds  of  a  century,  and  alternately  sued  and 
entertained  two-thirds  of  the  province  of  Connaught,  in  which  he 
resided,  he  still  had  all  the  pleasantry  of  youth  in  his  address,  tirxd 
art  struggled  hard  to  set  off  the  lingering  graces  of  his  exterior. 
His  clothes  were  always  adjusted  to  a  nicety  ;  a  peruke,  a  la  Brutus, 
rendered  either  baldness  or  greyness  invisible,  and  the  jet  black 
liquid  that  made  his  boot  a  mirror,  renovated  the  almost  semicircle 
of  his  eyel)row  I 

Such  to  an  iota  was  old  Bob  Lyons ;  and  to  him  Curran  has 
often  told  me  he  owed  not  merely  much  of  the  prosperity,  luit  many 
of  the  pleasantest  hours  of  his  existence.  The  case  in  which  he 
employed  him  first   was  the  Sligo  Election  Petition  cause  between 

*  Hjg  or  Flogqes  Hill— This,  the  editor  is  informed  by  Mr.  F::.  H.  Earl,  M.R.I.A.,  was  sit  jat^d 
in  ttie  viiunity  of  tlie  pnjsent  Protestant  Oh  arch  of  St.  Andrew's,  Suffolk-street.  Vid:  also 
Rev.  Professor  Stokes'  "  I.ectures  on  Celtic  Cnurcii  History,"  jj.  -iSO ;  London,  1683 


6  MEMOIRS 


Ormsby  and  Wynne,  a  species  of  litigation  from  which,  thanks  to 
the  Union,  no  young  Irish  barrister  will  ever  date  his  prosperity  in 
future.  In  this  case  Mr.  Curran  eminently  distinguished  himself; 
and  so  grateful  was  Lyons  for  his  exertions,  that  he  gave  him  pro- 
fessional business  afterwards  in  succession." 

There  is  a  circumstance  in  the  early  career  of  the  subject  of 
this  memoir  which  it  may  be  permitted  to  notice  as  some  evidence 
of  an  enterprising  disposition,  and  a  strong  sense  of  the  claims  of 
humanity  on  all  such  j)owers  as  are  given  to  each  and  every  individual. 

When  about  the  age  of  fourteen,  accompanied  by  one  of  ni}^ 
school-fellows,  I  obtained  admission  to  see  those  dungeons  of  which 
many  of  the  men  of  '98  had  been  inmates  in  the  jail  of  Newgate. 
On  passing  a  door  with  a  grated  window  looking  into  the  courtyard 
of  the  cells  for  convicts  condemned  to  death,  I  heard  myself  called  by 
name  to  the  door,  and  addressed  in  earnest  terms  of  entreaty  by  one 
of  the  condemned  prisoners.  The  man,  to  me  unknown,  begged  me  to 
speak  to  my  father,  Mr.  E.  Madden,  by  whom  he  said  he  had  formerly 
been  employed  as  a  workman,  to  interfere  in  his  behalf,  and  have  a 
petition  drawn  up  for  a  remission  of  the  sentence  of  death,  for  pre- 
sentation to  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  It  turned  out  that  this  person, 
named  .....  a  powerful-looking  man  of  about  thirty-five  years  of 
age,  and  two  juvenile  accomplices,  had  been  convicted  of  a  robbery, 
and  sentenced  to  be  hanged.  The  day  appointed  for  their  execu- 
tion was  only  eight  or  ten  days  distant  from  the  time  of  this  inter- 
view witli  the  culprit,  whom  I  had  no  recollection  of  ever  having 
seen  before.  I  promised  to  do  all  that  I  was  entreated  to  do.  But 
as  I  turned  away,  deeply  impressed  with  the  awful  situation  of 
this  unfortunate  man,  I  reflected  on  the  impossibility  of  acquaint- 
ing my  father  with  the  circumstance  of  my  visit  to  the  prison,  and 
began  to  think  how  I  could  accomplish  the  object  in  question. 
On  my  return  home,  finding  my  thoughts  disturbed  wherever  I  went 
in  the  house,  I  betook  myself  to  the  hay-loft  of  a  stable  detached 
from  the  dwelling,  having  called  to  my  councils  there  my  cousin, 
Edward  Byrne,  a  youth  of  my  own  age,  a  playmate;  and  a  favourite 
companion.  In  that  hay-loft,  at  this  conference  of  two  bo^^s  treat- 
ing of  the  salvation  of  the  life  of  a  humau  being,  the  plans  were 
coolly  and  deliberately  discussed  with  a  strange  conviction  of  success, 
or  rather  a  strong  determination  to  succeed,  which,  under  Providence, 
conti'ibuted  to  the  fortunate  issue  of  those  efforts.* 

Pen,  ink,  and  paper  were  brought  into  requisition,  and  after 
various  attempts,  a  memorial  was  at  length  completed,  addressed  to 
the  Lord  Lieutenant,  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  on  behalf  of  the  con- 

*  The  gentleman  above  referred  to,  Mr.  Edward  Byrne,  when  this  statement  v/ns  written, 
some  ten  years  ago,  was  a  wealthy  and  respected  citizen  of  Paris,  and  was  the  same  trusted 
friend  of  the  subject  of  this  memoir  he  was  then.  All  the  vicissitudes  of  the  career  of  both 
in  foreign  lands  for  upwards  of  half  a  century  had  left  their  friendship  unchanged.— In  July 
1868  Mr.  Byrne  died  whilst  on  a  visit  to  Dublin. 


r»R.     R.     R.     MADDEN. 


demned  culprit,  purporting  to  come  from  the  wife  of  the  prisoner 

f  the'V'etitirr^'/r"^^  ™^  ''""^"^  '^«'-«'<^''  ^^  t'^-'" -™' 

01  the  petition)  There  was  a  recommendation  to  mercv  of 
the  accomphoes  of  this  man,  ingeniously  referred  to,  ,vh  ch  i 
vas  hoped  would  cover  a  multitude  of  sins  and  crimes,  and  t^e  in 
those  of  the  adult  culprit,  to  which  they  were  not  ext^Kled  by  the 
jury.  Haying  completed  their  memorial  the  young  hay^ofrconsU  a 
tors  against  the  interests  of  the  Irish  Calcraft^M  Thomas 
Gay  n-desceiHled  to  the  stable  and  parted  company. 

The   wiie   of  the  prisoner  was  sought  after,  but  her  discoyery 

n    „,.n  f,     '".capable   of  seconding   them.     It  now  remained 

IL^ZT  tf  ''^'"V"'"'  '^  '^'  J"'-y  *«  '^'  »^<'>»«ri''l-  This 
was    done   with    complete   success   except   in   a   single    instance 

if  It  wnTn't"  >  '■•  .^r-r  ,"*■  Bridge-street,  dechned  to  sign 
It.  It  ixas  not  without  difficulty  that  we  presented  a  copy  of 
our  memorial  to  the  Judge,  being  refused  admission  at  his  h  u"e 

slters  TShlZ  T'  '""'  *■"'  P'"^""  establishment  of  the 
bisteis  ot  Charity.  However,  we  succeeded  in  doing  so  as  he  was 
going  0  court,  and  our  boyish  importunity  was  not  mei^lv  imrebu  :i 

ilerc::ased  t:™:„i:,x.' ""' "  """^'""•'''^  '^"'""-^  *«* '  •-■« 

Much  was  now  done:  but  the  question  came  to  be  considered 
how  was  the  memorial  to  be  presented   to  the  Lord  Lieutenant  > 

access  to  His  Excellency.     ^  arious  inquiries  were  made    and  'it 

James   gX  fr7"'""l"'  "l"'  ''"'"'  "--'  «f '^  neighbl.r     I 

bvlPu  I  °f  R'ehmond.  The  memorial  was  soon  hi  this  way 
biought  under  the  notice  of  the  noble  lady,  and  in  <hie  time  n-tssed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Viceroy.    There  it  remained  u    "e^^rof'-  da v 

friend?  'o  T'  "  '^'  "V^""™'  '"^"^  ''-  P"-"--  0'  S.: 
fi  end  .  On  reaching  the  goal,  as  I  did  at  a  very  early  hour  on  the 
Saturday    morning    appointed   for  the    execution,    to    my    homv 

Lr  TirP''/'!*'  "°^''f  •  *""'  '•"  «'-"'  *"  gaUows^in  readt 
less.     I  returned  home  and  no  one  there  was  made  acquainted 

Edwa.7R:™r\"'  '"'''''  "'''''  •="""«'  or  my  disappointm  nt 
tbelw?    ,t    r'T'  w™*'""''  °"  "•«  spot,  and  was  not  long 

l^^A  [  f"  'fP'-'eve,  a  reprieve."  He  forced  his  way  through  the 
crowd,  stuck  close  to  the  sheriffs  people,  and  got  into \he  goal  w  h 
them^  There  he  saw  the  condemned  culprit  a  few  minuttS  afte  "  t 
had  been  announced  to  him  that  his  life  had  been  spared,  and    he 

doo  bk'  T  ,"'f' ■"'  «\^'^«'«l""g  forth  through  the  b^rsof  1  e 
dooi  IS  great  elephantine  hand,  were-'- Ah,  my  little  man  is  that 
you  .'     and  then  passing  his  left  hand  round  }l  thick  neck   slw 


8  MEMOIRS 


"I  never  thought  this  was  meant  for  a  rope.  Hurrah  for  Botany 
Bay  !  If  you  or  young  Master  Madden  ever  come  to  that  country 
you'll  find  a  friend  there  in  me."  Master  Madden  did  go  to  Austra- 
lia, hut  had  not  the  opportunity  of  meeting  this  person,  or  testing 
the  gratitude  he  owed  to  a  schoolho}^  and  his  companion  for  his  life. 
There  is  a  moral  in  this  story,  though  it  may  not  have  much  of 
novelty  perhaps  in  it.  There  is  no  human  heing  too  insignificant, 
of  too  liumhle  a  station  in  society,  too  feeble  in  his  frame,  too  little 
acquainted  with  great  people,  to  perft)rm  a  service  to  humanity  if  he 
has  only  sufficient  common  sense  to  devise,  and  employ  the  means 
within  his  reach,  together  with  sufficient  energy  to  make  the  effort 
in  a  hopeful  and  enterprising  spirit. 


COMMENCEMENT    OF    MEDICAL    EDUCATION. 

My  first  ambition  manifested  itself  in  1815,  when  I  ventured  to 
make  known  my  strong  desire  to  be  apprenticed  to  a  surgeon,  then 
of  great  eminence  in  Dublin,  of  the  name  of  Keogh.  For,  in 
those  days,  to  gain  admission  to  the  medical  profession,  it  was 
necessary  to  be  thus  bound  apprentice,  and  my  father  and  mother 
used  to  talk  the  matter  over  day  after  day  at  the  breakfast-table.  If 
ever  a  boy  could  be  said  to  be  heart-sick,  I  think  I  felt  so,  listening  to 
the  different  objections  urged  against  what  I  had  set  my  mind  on. 
My  father's  objections  was  to  the  expense.  My  mother's  chiefly 
to  my  leaving  home  in  by  no  means  robust  health.  Not  being  able 
for  the  former  reason  to  become  a  pupil  of  Mr.  Keogh's,  who 
demanded  a  fee  of  ^250,  or  to  any  of  those  other  great  surgeons  with 
which  Dublin  then  abounded  in,  the  only  resource  left  me  was  to  get 
apprenticed  to  a  general  practitioner  or  apothecary,  and  thus 
eventually  to  succeed  in  getting  to  the  surgical  profession.  I  accord- 
ingly resolved  to  offer  myself  for  examination  at  the  Apothecaries' 
Hall,  in  order  to  qualify  myself  for  this,  by  a  preliminary  examina- 
tion in  the  classics,  comj)rising  a  smattering  of  Greek,  at  least  of 
the  four  first  books  of  St.  John,  without  the  knowledge  of  any 
member  of  my  family,  fearing  the  obloquy  of  rejection.  I  fortunately 
passed,  however,  though  not  without  difficulty  at  the  hands  of 
one  of  the  examiners,  a  fanatical  politician  of  violent  Orange 
principles — Mr.  Giffard,  of  some  notoriety  in  the  year  '98— better 
known  as  "Jack  Giffard,  the  dog  in  office."  The  last  attempt  he 
made  to  upset  me  was  by  a  question  as  to  my  age,  which  I  stated  was 
seventeen.  Mr.  Giffard  said  he  did  not  believe  that  answer  was  a 
true  one.  I  was  nettled  at  this  insult  and,  perhaps,  foolishly  retorted  "  I 
was  born  in  1798,  and  probably,  sir,  you  may  remember  that  remark- 
able year."     The  Chairman,  who,  I  Uiink,  was  Mr.   Moore  of  Anne- 


DR.     R.     R.     MADDEN.  Q 


Street,  evideutlj  tliouglit  I  was  badly  treated,  and  deemed  it  time  to 
interpose.  He  said  :  "  You  may  retire  Mr.  Madden.  You  have 
satisfied  me  as  to  your  qualifications."  When  I  told  this  to  some 
other  young  men  who  had  to  be  examined,  they  assured  me 
Jack  Giffiird  would  inevitably  get  me  plucked.  They  were 
mistaken,  however.     I  brought  home  mv  certificate. 

For  some  time  after  this  1  searched  oVer  Dubhn  for  a  master,  and 
at  length  I  heard  of  a  country  practitioner  -Mr.  Woods  of  Athboy 
county  Meath  (brother-in-law  of  an  eminent  Dublin  physician.  Dr. 
Adams),  who  wanted  an  apprentice,  and  required  only  a  small  fe^  I 
was  accoi-dingly  bound  to  him,  and,  at  the  age  of  seventeen  "for 
the  hrst  time  m  my  life  left  home.  That  word  has  magic  in 
It,  but  Its  spell  is  now  a  melancholy  one  to  me.  At  that  time  my 
father  s  hospitable  liouse  was  still  the  pleasant  home  of  a  laro-e 
youthful,  joyous  fVimily,  the  members  of  wliich  were  warinly 
attached  to  each  other.  But  witliiii  the  two  following  years,  by  the 
deaths  of  two  of  my  brothers,  and  subsequent  commercial  mis- 
chances, that  long  happy  home  became  desolate  and  saddened. 


CHAPTER    in. 

MEMORANDA    OF    EARLY    CAREER    COMMENCED    IN    PARIS,    1820. 

In  April  1820,  having  previously  completed  my  apprenticesliii)  to 
Mr  Woods,  I  quitted  Ireland  at  the  age  of  twentv-one  years  and 
eight  montlis.  Threatened  with  consumption,  which  had  been 
fatal  to  two  of  my  brothers  :  labouring  under  severe  pain  in  the  side 
cough,  and  spitting  of  l)lood  (which  latter  symptom  I  sedulously 
concealed  from  my  mother),  I  consulted  an  eminent  medical  practi- 
tioner, Dr.  John  P'teilly  of  Thomas-street,  and  requested  to  be  told 
if  it  was  likely  that  I  should  follow  my  brothers.  Dr  Eeilly 
endeayoured  to  avoid  giving  a  direct  answer,  but  on  pressing  him  he 
said  that  my  only  chance  of  escape  from  consumption  was  imme- 
diate removal  to  a  warmer  climate,  and  subsequently  Dr  Per- 
cival  and  Dr.  Callanan  confirmed  his  opinion.  I  had  a  great 
horror  of  pming  away  before  my  mother's  face,  and  dyino-  l,y 
inches,  as  I  thought,  and  determined  on  abandoning  home  1  did 
so  accoi-chngly,  without  informing  anyone  of  my  intention  excpijt  a 
joiing  friend   named   Higgins.      (This  Higgins  afterwards  b.r'ni.. 


10  MEMOIRS 


well-known  as  tlie  O'Higgins  of  Radical  notoriety,  and  was  an 
honest  minded,  kindly  disposed  young  man).  Just  then  I  received 
a  small  sum  of  money — something  under  thirty  pounds,  being 
my  portion  of  half  a  year's  rent  of  the  lands  of  Kanbeg,  in 
the  county  Leitrim,  the  last  remnant  of  the  property  of  my  mater- 
nal ancestors,  the  Fordes  of  Corry,  which  had  been  bequeathed 
to  my  brothers  and  myself  by  the  will  of  my  mother's  brother,  the 
Rev.  Henry  Forde,  parish  priest  of  Enniskillen.  With  this  limited 
capital  I  started.  After  paying  my  passage  from  Cork  to  Bordeaux 
and  purchasing  an  outfit,  I  had  on  embarking  eleven  guineas  where- 
with to  face  the  world  when  I  arrived  in  France.  I  had,  however, 
a  vague  idea  that  I  should  not  fail  to  obtain  a  clerkship  in  some 
English  commercial  house  in  Bordeaux. 

During  the  voyage,  unusually  tedious  (eleven  days),  our  captain 
sacrificed  freely  to  Bacchus,  and  was  daily  under  the  influence  of 
his  inspirations.  On  my  arrival  in  Bordeaux,  the  state  of  my 
finances  was  well  calculated  to  alarm  a  prudent  man.  Eleven 
golden  guineas  was  my  stock  of  earthly  riches.  Beginning 
the  world  with  this,  I  was  determined  to  sink  or  swim  by  my  own 
exertions,  and  I  had  no  fears  but  that  I  would  succeed  in  earning  a 
livelihood. 

I  took  lodgings  in  the  skymost  chamber  of  a  fine  house  in  the 
noble  Rue  Chapeau  Rouge,  belonging  to  two  persons  who  carried  on 
the  business  of  printing-paper  merchants.  After  some  weeks'  resi- 
dence there  I  began  to  be  able  to  speak  French  pretty  fluently. 
In  Bordeaux  there  were  few  objects  of  curiosity  or  antiquity.  The 
old  ruined  Chateau  Franchette,  the  Castle  de  la  Trompete,  the  Tour 
de  I'Horlogeand  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  amphitheatre  and  those  of 
the  Convent  of  the  Chartreux  were  the  only  remains  worth  noticing. 
The  theatre  was  then  one  of  the  finest  in  France  ;  the  magnificent 
design  of  a  bridge  over  the  Garonne,  planned  by  Napoleon,  was  yet 
incompleted. 

From  Bordeaux  I  made  a  journey  to  Toulouse,  Montauban,  Pau, 
Cauterets,  Bagneres  de  Bigorre,  Bagneres  de  Luchon,  &c.  At  Tou- 
louse, the  widow  of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  was  at  that  time  living. 
On  my  return  from  Toulouse  I  sailed  down  the  river  to  Bordeaux,  a 
distance  of  about  150  miles,  in  three  days,  during  which  time  I  had 
leisure  to  reflect  on  my  dreary  prospects,  and  to  think  how  I  might 
hope  to  amend  them.  I  now,  but  in  vain,  sought  to  obtain  employ- 
ment as  a  clerk  in  some  of  the  Bordeaux  merchants'  offices,  and 
was  obliged  to  request  my  kind  landlord,  Mr.  Magrene  of  the 
Chartrons,  to  allow  me  to  be  in  his  debt  nearly  ten  pounds  till  my 
arrival  in  Paris,  and  also  to  borrow  five  pounds  on  my  I.  0.  U. 
from  an  Irish  merchant. 

Previous  to  my  departure  I  had  a  disagreement  with  a  Mr. 
Gouldsbury  (my  coviparpion  de  roijage  from  Dublin  to  Bordeaux)  in 


DR.     R.     R.     MADDEN.  11 


a  billiard-room.  I  was  asked  by  some  one  he  was  playing  with  to 
score  the  game  for  them.  I  did  so,  and  Gonldsbury  said  I  was 
wrong  in  the  count ;  I  said  I  was  not,  and  he  replied  that  I  was  mis- 
taken. Rather  angrily,  I  very  improperly  put  an  offensive  word  in 
his  mouth,  and  said  :  "  You  mean  to  say  I  have  said  what  is  untrue  ?" 
"  Yes,  I  do,"  he  replied.  One  imprudence  led  to  another.  I  w^ent 
up  to  him  and  said  :  "  You  will  hear  from  me  in  the  course  of  the 
evening."  I  proceeded  to  a  friend  of  mine — a  Corkonian,  Captain 
Haynes — and  the  result  of  the  interview,  and  one  which  he  had  with 
Mr.  (t.  an  hour  afterwards,  was  an  appointment  for  meeting  the  next 
morning,  I  returned  home,  a  young  gentleman  wholly  unacquainted 
with  affairs  of  honour ;  and,  having  some  disagreeable  remembrance 
of  a  brother  of  mine — Henry  Madden,  an  officer  who,  after  having 
served  unscathed  through  the  Peninsular  campaign,  had  some 
five  years  previously  been  badly  wounded  in  the  same  class  of 
encounter,  could  not  be  in  want  of  food  for  reflections.  These 
certainly  were  not  of  the  most  pleasant  nature,  as  the  thoughts 
of  my  folly,  and  more  especially  the  grief  which  I  knew  its 
possibly  fatal  event  would  occasion  to  my  mother,  sufficed  to 
banish  sleep  from  my  pillow  until  the  time  came  to  prepare  for 
the  meeting,  which  was  ap])oiDted  to  take  place  at  six  o'clock 
next  morning.  Half  an  liour  before  then,  however,  and  I  may 
candidly  add  with  no  little  satisfaction,  I  received  a  message  con- 
veying an  ample  and  umpialilied  apology  from  my  antagonist  for 
his  conduct. 


MY     EARLY    CAREER    IN    PARIS    IN    1820. 


Having  remained  three  months  in  Bordeaux,  I  set  out  for  Paris  by 
diligence,  a  distance  of  five  hundred  miles,  on  the  19th  of  August 
1820.  The  day  before  my  departure  a  succession  of  disagreeable 
circumstances  annoyed  and  vexed  me.  Not  the  least  of  these  was 
the  painful  necessity  of  parting  with  a  beautiful  edition  of  my 
favourite  Shakespeare,  which  had  cost  four  guineas  in  Dublin.  I 
took  it  with  a  heavy  heart  to  a  French  bookseller,  who  offered  me 
ten  francs  for  it,  with  the  remark — "  La  reliure.  Monsieur,  est 
assez  joU,  mais  votre  poesie  Anglais  ne  vaut  rien  en  France." 
Shakespeare  and  I  thus  parted  company  in  Bordeaux,  and  the  part- 
ing was  more  disagreeable  than  I  can  express  or  could  be  easily 
imagined.  I  found  myself  seated  in  the  diligence  wdth  a  French 
lady  of  distinction  and  lier  daughter,  a  young  lady  of  great  beaut}^ 
together  with  a  young  gentleman  not  of  their  party — a  complete 
"  petit  maitre,"  whose  manners  and  appearance  were  exceedingly 


12  MF.MOIRS 


distasteful  to  me.  I  had  the  misfortime  to  have  acquired  a  habit  of 
judging  people  by  first  impressions.  There  was  something  as  I 
fancied  in  this  person's  physiognomy  indicative  of  intense  self-conceit: 
so  I  was  not  disposed  to  communication,  nor  he  to  be  civil,  or  even 
courteous  during  the  first  two  days  of  our  journey.  Yet  before  it 
was  over  Monsieur  ds  Pluvier  and  I  were  on  excellent  terms,  which 
eventually  led  to  a  sincere  friendship.  1  found  him  a  kind-hearted 
and  genial  fellow.  He  was  of  an  old  and  wealthy  family  in  the 
south  of  France.  During  the  time  we  both  remained  in  Paris,  there 
were  few  days  that  we  did  not  meet,  and  we  parted  the  best  of 
friends.  So  much  for  tirtjt  impressions  and  hasty  judgments 
from  outward  appearances. 

On  my  arrival  in  Paris  I  took  up  my  abode  in  the  Hotel  d'Hol- 
lande.  Rue  Neuve  des  Bons  Enfants.  1  had  determined  to  seek  some 
employment,  and  felt  sanguine  of  success — without  any  good 
grounds  indeed  for  that  expectation  except  in  my  mother's  prayers, 
which  I  knew  were  never  likely  to  fail  being  offered  up  for  me 
whilst  she  was  in  life.  That  thought  kept  me  up.  After  a  while, 
however,  I  began  to  realize  the  difficulties  of  my  position,  and  at 
times,  and  on  one  occasion  particularly,  to  give  way  to  a  feeling  of 
depression  and  despondency,  and  to  think  myself  without  hope  for 
the  future.  Yet  I  was  perfectly  aware  that  I  had  only  to 
write  home  and  make  known  my  want  of  means  and  they 
would  be  supplied.  But  some  infatuation — a  feeling  of  false 
pride — not  only  prevented  my  doing  this,  but  determined  me  never 
to  do  it. 

****** 

Shortly  before  my  arrival  in  Paris  the  Duke  de  Berri  had  been 
assassinated,  having  survived  the  restoration  of  the  House  of 
Bourbon  to  the  tlirone  only  two  years,  and  a  general  impression 
seemed  to  prevail  in  the  public  mind  that  a  revolution  was  imminent. 
The  gloom  of  the  political  atmosphere  seemed  to  affect  all  classes, 
and  was  not  lightened  in  my  own  case  by  the  uncertainty  and  diffi- 
culties of  my  prospects.  (3ne  day  when  labouring  under  these 
feelings,  in  bad  health  and  mind  depressed,  I  had  as  usual 
strolled  out  for  air  and  exercise,  and  going  along  the  Boulevards,  at 
last  sat  down  on  the  bank  of  the  canal  in  front  of  the  then  existing 
ruins  of  the  Bastille,  by  no  means  in  a  cheerful  mood,  when  I  was 
disturbed  in  my  meditations  by  the  noise  of  a  person  rushing  past 
me.  I  looked  up,  and  saw  a  man  running  down  the  bank  and  throw- 
ing himself  headlong  into  the  canal.  I  rushed  in  after  him,  and 
seized  hold  of  him  just  as  his  head  was  for  the  second  time  going 
under  water,  and  after  a  short  struggle,  as  he  resisted  strenuously, 
I  landed  him  safely  on  the  bank.  For  this,  however,  he  seemed  in 
no   wise  obhged,  behig,   on  the   contrary,   at  first   in  an  agony  of 


BE.     R.     R.     MADDEN.  13 


Jistress  and  despair  at  the  frustration  of  liis  purpose.  His  first 
coherent  observation  was,  "  Monsieur,  Voila  mon  chapeau,"  point- 
mg  to  his  hat  that  was  floating  on  the  water.  I  thought  it  most 
extraordinary  for  a  man  seeking  death  to  look  after  so  trifling  an 
object;  but,  of  all  mortals,  a  Frenchman  is  the  most  unaccountable. 
This  adventure  was  a  useful  lesson,  bringing  forcibly  to  my  mind 
the  thought  that  there  was  more  misery  '•  in  the  world  than  I  dreamt 
of  ni  my  philosophy,"'  and  hence  the  nnpropriety  of  drawing  an  over- 
charged picture,  or  thinking  oneself  supremely  wretched  when  there 
were  thousands  infinitely  more  afflicted.  I  reflected  whether  if  there 
w^as  any  possible  way  of  extricating  myself  from  my  own  present 
difficulties,  and  thep  suddenly  recalling  to  mind  my  early  medical 
training,  I  straightway  resolved  to  turn  it  to  account. 

That  veiy  moment  I  returned  to  the  city,  and,  as  soon  as  I  had 
changed  my  dripping  garments,  I  entered  an  ajjothecary's  and 
asked  where  a  situation  might  possibly  be  procured.  I  was  fortun- 
ately directed  to  M.  Planche  of  the  Boulevard  des  Italiens,  at  that 
time  the  first  apothecary  in  Paris,  who  was  then  in  want  of  an 
Enghsh  assistant,  and  m  the  same  evening  was  established  with 
him  at  a  fair  salary,  and  with  permission  to  attend  the  hospitals. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  say  how  rejoiced  I  felt  at  this  piece  of 
good  luck,  which  enabled  me  to  follow  my  surgical  studies,  and 
rescued  me  at  the  same  time  from  want.  Occasional  minor  opera- 
tions, bleeding,  leeching,  and  cupping  brought  me  in  a  great 
many  louis.  I  had  in  this  way  opportunities  of  knowing  several 
of  the  most  celebrated  characters  of  the  day  ;  but  the  first  time 
I  saw  and  spoke  to  the  glorious  little  Tommy  Moore,  it  might 
appear  childish  to  acknowledge  what  pleasure  I  experienced.  On 
one  occasion  at  this  period,  my  enthusiasm  for  our  national  poet 
found  a  somewhat  original  mode  of  expression,  viz  : — in  a  few  fines 
whichiu  November  1820  I  indited  and  transmitted  on  the  lid  of  a  pill- 
box to  Mr.  Moore,  who  then  resided  at  Paris  in  the  Allee  des  Veuves. 
This  circumstance  was  long  afterwards  recalled  to  mind  at  a  dinner 
party  at  Mr.  Huuk^'s,  where  I  met  Moore  in  1835,  and  is  referred  to 
in  his  Memoirs.* 

I  followed  the  advice  of  Chesterfield  in  conforming  to  the  habits  of 
the  people  I  lived  with  ;  but  more  than  outward  customs  I  was  unwill- 
ing to  adopt.  The  character  of  my  employer  and  his  family  was  the 
characterof  the  nation — ''ex unodisce  omnes,"— self-triumjphantover 
every  other  consideration.  Religion  was  a  matter  apparently  of  no  con- 
sideration whatsoe^•er.  IMonsieur  Planche  was  about  forty-five  years 
of  age,  as  perfectly  b'rench  as  one  can  well  imagine.  He  was  a 
great  chemist,  spent  half  his  time  in  his  laboratory,  and  slumbered 

*  ''Memoirs  and  Correspondence  of   Thomas  Moore."    E.lited  by  Lozd  John   EusseU, 
vol.  vii,  p.  10( ;  London,  1850.  ' 


14  MEMOIRS 


Hway  tlie  other  in  a  gloomy  corner,  while  his  wife  was  fagging  in 
the  pharmacy  from  morning  till  night.  He  was  incapable,  as 
I  perhaps  nn justly  then  thought,  of  an  action,  or  of  an  idea 
beyond  the  ordinary  routine  of  his  profession.  There  were  five 
assistants  in  the  pharmacy.  Their  nationalistic  tendencies  were 
displayed  in  very  unmistakeable  manifestations  of  ill-will  to  me 
from  the  day  I  made  their  acquaintance.  They  entered  into 
a  league  against  the  '*  gentil-homme  Anglais,"  for  so  they  called 
me,  and  hostilities  wei'e  carried  on  between  us  for  some  months  with 
various  success.  A  regular  pitched  battle  at  length  was  fought 
between  myself  and  a  young  Gascon,  a  fierce  little  fellow  with  a  tongue 
even  more  warlike  than  his  spirit.  Victory  was  on  my  side,  and 
henceforth  I  was  treated  with  respect.  During  the  engagement,  the 
Gascon  never  ceased  crying  out :  "  Je  suis  Francais  ;  "  when  the 
fight  was  closing,  I  collected  my  strength  for  a  parting  blow  to 
demonstrate  "  Que  j'etais  Irlandais."  About  this  period  I  was 
in  want  of  a  surgical  instrument,  the  cost  of  which  was  sixty 
francs,  and  I  had  only  thirty.  I  took  it  into  my  head  to 
try  what  gaming  would  do  for  me,  and  set  off  to  try  my  luck 
at  the  rouge  et  noir  tables  in  the  Palais  Eoyal.  I  determined  to  try 
all  on  the  first  hazard,  and  if  I  should  wdn,  there  to  stop.  It  came 
up  in  my  favour,  but  I  had  not  the  resolution  to  go  off  with  my 
winnings.  I  tried  "  my  luck  "  again,  and  ended  by  losing  all  I  had 
won  and  had  brought  with  me.  Most  fortunate  for  me  was  my 
mischance.  I  never  entered  a  gaming  house  again  from  that  day  to 
this,  an  interval  of  fifty  odd  years. 

I  remained  in  Paris  for  about  six  months,  during  which  time  I 
made  some  advancement  in  my  professional  studies,  gained  some 
knowledge  of  the  world,  saw  everything  of  interest  in  the  city,  and 
oftentimes  visited  the  theatre  more  as  a  distraction  in  my  lonely  and 
friendless  leisure  hours  than  for  any  enjoyment  of  the  performances, 
from  which  though  naturally  enough  fond  of  the  legitimate 
drama,  I  frequently  returned  home  disgusted.  A  recurrence 
of  my  old  pulmonary  symptoms  at  the  commencement  of  winter 
compelled  me  to  give  up  my  employment  in  Paris  and  to 
resume  my  search  for  health  and  fortune  in  a  more  genial  climate. 
Accordingly  I  now,  and  without  much  regret,  took  my  departure 
from  the  French  capital  with  the  intention  of  going  to  Naples. 


•TOURNEY   FROM    MARSEILLES. — ROME    IN    1821. 

On  my  arrival  at  Marseilles  from  Paris  in  January  1821,  I  called 
on  a  countryman  of  mine  established  in  practice  there,  Dr.  Luby, 
of  whose  solid  worth  and  nianv  excellencies  of  character  I  had  then 


DR.     E.     K.     MADDEN.  15 


and  subsequently  reason  to  think  higlilj'.  I  brought  an  introduction 
to  him  from  a  mutual  friend  in  Paris,  Dr.  Morgan.  From  Dr.  Luby, 
who  had  been  long  in  Marseilles,  and  had  repeatedly  visited  southern 
Italy,  I  got  much  valuable  information  as  to  the  eligibility  of  the 
several  principal  health  resorts  of  English  invalids  between  Nice  and 
Naples,  with  reference  to  my  views  of  practice,  and  of  obtaining 
some  employment  as  a  travelling  medical  attendant.  All  I  learned 
of  Naples  confirmed  my  resolution  to  proceed  there. 

After  a  brief  stay  at  Nice,  where  I  experienced  much  civility 
from  Lieutenant  Boyd,  whom  I  had  formerly  known  at  Montauban, 
I  embarked  with  my  friend  Mr.  Marshall  on  board  a  felucca  bound 
for  Genoa,  and  thence,  after  a  passage  over  the  smoothest  sea  and 
under  the  brightest  sky,  along  the  beautiful  Ligurian  coast,  meriting 
all  that  the  Mantuan  Bard  has  said  of  its  romantic  beauty,  I  arrived 
in  Civita  Vecchia.  My  stay  at  the  last  named  place  was  only  of  a 
few  hours,  and  I  set  out  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  to  walk 
to  Rome,  a  distance  of  thirty-nine  miles. 

On  one  subject  fools  and  philosophers  arrive  at  the  same  conclusion, 
namely,  that  an  empty  purse  and  a  heavy  heart  are  two  bad 
things  for  a  long  journey.  This  I  realized  as  I  started  at  nightfjill, 
on  a  route  renowned  for  robberies  and  murders,  on  my  dreary  walk. 
The  first  twenty  miles  was  easily  accomplished  ;  but  the  darkness 
of  the  night  and  the  dangers  of  the  road  wearied  and  depressed  me 
more  than  the  bodily  fatigue.  Every  blast  of  wind  appeared  to  me 
to  be  the  sound  of  the  footsteps  and  whisperings  of  banditti ;  and,  to 
my  shame  be  it  told,  that  passing  a  solitary  churchyard  at  midnight 
I  felt  dismayed,  and  heartily  could  have  wished  myself  in  a  more 
frequented  locality.  But  imaginary  perils  were  unnecessary,  as  I 
was  soon  assailed  by  a  somewhat  more  substantial  apparition.  From 
behind  a  wall  on  the  road-side  a  huge  mastiff  rushed  out  and  attacked 
me  furiously.  A  momentary  impulse  led  me  to  stand  my  ground. 
I  stooped  down,  picked  up  a  large  stone,  made  a  sling  of  my  pocket- 
handkerchief,  and  with  that  succeeded,  after  a  long  contest,  in  beat- 
ing my  assailant  out  of  the  field,  and  marched  off  in  triumph.  I  con- 
tinued my  journey  without  further  interruption  until  I  arrived  in 
Home,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  thoroughly  worn  out  in  mind 
and  body,  having  been  for  seventeen  hours  on  the  road  without  rest 
or  food.  On  getting  into  an  hotel  I  spat  blood,  and  felt  so  ill  that  I 
fancied  I  was  then  going  to  "  that  bourne  whence  no  traveller 
returns."  During  that  illness  I  fully  reahzed  all  the  miserable 
feelings  of  a  sick  man  in  a  foreign  country,  who,  without  a  friend  to 
give  him  hope  or  means  to  l)ribe  a  stranger  to  do  for  him  the  offices 
of  humanity,  has,  as  I  then  had,  to  pass  the  lingering  hours  in 
retracing  happier  scenes  ;  the  comforts  of  a  home  he  may  look  upon 
uo  more,  or  the  kindness  of  friends  he  may  never  meet  again  ! 


16  MEMOIRS 

lu  every  trial  and  perplexity  I  endeavoured  to  prevent  my  mind 
from  preying  on  itself  by  spinning  out  the  cobweb  of  the  brain  into 
scraps  of  rhyme,  beguiling  away  the  melancholy  hours  with — 
"  my  shame  in  crowds  my  solitary  muse."  So  far  has  this  poetical 
mania  carried  me,  that  in  the  dissecting  room,  while  hanging  over  a 
subject,  I  have  often  found  my  scalpel  at  a  standstill  while  my  head 
was  running  over  a  love-sick  lay.  Thus  the  following  lines  were 
written  about  this  time  when  I  expected  to  leave  my  bones 
in  Rome: — 


ODE    TO    THE    KING    OF    TEBROKS. 

Hail !  grisly  monarch  of  the  grave  ! 
Thy  subject,  yes,  but  uot  thy  slave, 
I  greet  thee,  tho'  thy  law  is  one 
It  bows  the  spirit  down  to  own. 
No  matter,  hail !  for  still  thou  art 
The  solace  of  the  broken  heart. 
The  final  refuge  of  poor  mortals. 
Who  seek  lost  peace  within  thy  portals. 
All  vain  distinctions  and  unjust, 
With  these  are  levelled  with  the  dust ; 
The  wise  sink  calmly  on  thy  breast. 
The  weary  fiy  to  thee  for  rest. 
The  wretched  woo  thee  to  their  bed. 
To  ease  the  tortured  heart  and  head, 
And  half  thy  adventitious  terrors 
Are  but  the  growth  of  human  errors. 
Such  terrors  may  the  base  appal, 
Oppression,  pomp,  and  pride  enthral, 
Seize  on  a  Jeffrey's  parting  breath, 
Or  haunt  a    .     .     .   bed  of  death. 
A  grasping  Elwe's  groans  convulse. 
Throb  in  a  Chartre's  sinking  pulse, 
Thrill  in  the  quivering  lips  of  traitors, 
And  paralyze  the  shocked  spectators. 
Thy  summons,  with  it,  still  dread  king. 
Its  pangs  may  never  fail  to  bring 
The  dread  e'en  of  protected  pain  ; 
Of  lingering  agonies  which  chain 
The  parting  spirit  to  the  clay 
That  keeps  it  where  it  would  not  stay. 
And  yet  though  darkness  be  thy  throne. 
Corruption  thy  appalling  crown. 
Still  dost  thou  lead  to  life  and  light, 
And  realms  beyond  the  reign  of  uight  I 


As  soon  as  1  was  able  to  stir  abroad  I  visited  the  wonders  of  the 
ancient  capital  of  the  world,  "  the  Eternal  City."  Well  is  that 
proud  title  ap[)lied  to  Eome  as  the  centre  of  Christendom :  the 
enduring  monument  of  the  unbroken  continuity  and  identity  of  the 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  17 


Church,  which  is  ruled  by  the  occupant  of  the  See  of  Peter,  with 
that  which  was  sheltered  in  the  Koman  catacombs,  and  whose 
martyrs  received  their  glorious  crown  in  its  blood-stained  arena.  In 
no  other  aspect  is  that  designation  justified.  For  what  other  associa- 
tion is  there  between  the  idea  of  eternity  and  a  mass  of  moulder- 
ing monuments,  however  noble,  sinking  into  ruin  under  the  wither- 
ing influence  of  time  '?  Is  the  broken  pyramid  of  Metellu's  tomb, 
or  the  crumbling  structure  of  the  Cohseum  an  example  of  eternity  ? 
Well  may  Eome  be  called  the  Niobe  of  nations  ;  and  he  who  can 
survey  the  decaying  palaces  of  the  Caesars  without  feeling  how 
perishable  are  all  the  works  of  man,  must  be  one  of  the  many 
tourists  who  can  derive  no  benefit  from  "  sermons  in  stones,"  or 
from  aught  except  their  guide  book. 

How  comes  it  that  travellers  are  so  frequently  disappointed  in 
their  expectations  of  ancient  edifices  and  other  objects  of  curiosity '<* 
Is  it  that  these  things  are  devoid  of  interest,  or  themselves  deficient 
in  taste  ?  No  ;  it  is  because  they  understand  not  the  conduct  of 
curiosity,  and  falsely  imagine  that  there  is  at  all  times  the  same 
fitness  of  taste  for  visiting  an  ancient  temple  or  lounging  through  a 
modern  palace.  The  blue  devils  is  a  disease  not  very  uncommon, 
and  a  traveller  under  its  influence  will  do  well  to  remain  at  home 
for  the  day,  lest  he  cry  out  with  Smellfungus  :  "  All  is  barren." 
There  are  hkewise  proper  hours  for  going  to  these  places, 
and  particular  situations  for  a  favourable  view.  Of  a  sombre  day 
the  subhmity  of  St.  Peter's  is  most  developed ;  the  Vatican  is  best 
seen  by  torchlight,  and  the  moon  must  guide  your  steps  along  the 
grass-grown  streets  to  the  temples  in  the  Campo  Vecchio,  where  the 
silver  beams  are  reflected  on  tbe  shattered  pillars,  and  the  obscurity 
around  leaves  room  for  the  imagination  to  till  the  awful  scene  with 
the  shades  of  former  times.  But  after  a  few  years  wandering,  when 
the  pleasant  page  of  our  early  travel's  history  is  filled  up  ;  when 
modern  wonders  are  exhausted,  we  may  roam  over  the  universe  and 
iind  disappointment  following  at  our  heels.  We  wonder  how  every 
thing  about  us  is  changed,  and  never  imagine  the  alteration  is  in 
our  own  perception.  In  our  way  through  the  world  judgment, 
founded  on  sad  experience,  may  be  a  useful  substitute  for  the  warm 
enthusiasm  of  early  days,  but  life  divested  of  romantic  feeling  affords 
a  dreary  prospect  when  reason  triumphs  and  imagination  fails ;  when 
the  bright  hopes  of  youth,  long  over,  our  accustomed  rambles 
in  the  green  fields  with  the  god  of  nature  are  perforce  exchanged 
for  the  valetudinarian's  easy  chair  by  the  fireside,  and  when  the 
lyrics  of  Moore  are  abandoned  for  the  Meditations  of  Harvey.  The 
feeling  of  a  disillusioned  wayfaring  man  are  by  no  means  to  be 
envied  or  made  a  vaunt  of.*  This  fact  I  have,  alas,  now  learned,  and 

S 


18  MEMOIKS 


yet  few  have  ever  ^Yacled  tlirough  greater  difficulties  to  indulge  a 
passion  for  travelling  than  I  did  in  those  far-off  days  of  my  youth, 
the  recollections  of  which  are  now  before  me. 


MY    FIRST   VISIT    TO    NAPLES. RETURN    TO    ENGLAND    IN    1822. 

In  March,  1821,  the  attempted  revolution  of  the  Carbonari  had 
brought  an  Austrian  army  into  southern  Italy,  a  portion  of  which 
had  possession  of  Civita  Vecchia  when  I  arrived  there.  All  com- 
munication between  Konie  and  Naples  by  dihgence  or  any  other 
public  vehicle  had  ceased.  To  wait  till  it  might  be  restored  was 
not  a  proceeding  in  accordance  with  the  state  of  my  finances.  The 
distance  from  Eome  to  Naples  is  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles, 
and  this  journey  I  determined  on  undertaking  on  foot.  I  had  little 
to  apprehend  from  banditti  on  the  score  of  my  property  being 
imperilled — "  cantahit  vacuus  coram  latrone  viator.''^  Still,  with  a 
view  to  the  greater  probability  of  escape  from  banditti  in  a  country 
notoriously  infested  with  them,  and  of  peril  at  the  hands  of  stragglers 
from  the  fugitive  forces  of  the  Carbonari  and  detachments  of  the 
Austrian  troops  proceeding  to  or  from  Eome,  I  proceeded  as  far  as 
possible  by  night.  At  the  end  of  the  first  thirty  miles,  thoroughly 
exhausted,  I  was  forced  to  make  the  ground  my  place  of  rest. 
During  the  entire  route,  however,  I  pursued  my  way  unmolested, 
and  reached  Naples,  after  a  walk  of  five  days  and  nights  (almost 
thirty  miles  a  day)  on  the  6th  of  March  1821. 

On  my  arrival  in  Naples  my  funds  were  very  low.  I  lost  no  time 
in  repairing  to  the  surgery  of  Dr.  Reilly,  an  English  practitioner 
in  affluent  circumstances,  to  whom  I  had  been  recommended,  and  by 
whom  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  be  engaged  as  assistant  at  a  suffi- 
cient salary,  and  with  permission  to  attend  the  hospitals  and  the 
medical  courses  of  the  university,  together  with  the  expectation  of 
succeeding  at  the  expiration  of  a  year  to  a  share  in  the  profits  of  the 
business.  Dr.  Reilly  was  surgeon  to  the  British  Legation,  a  genuine 
Irishman,  open-hearted  and  humorous,  possessed  of  most  of  the  good 
qualities  of  his  countrymen  and  very  few  of  their  supposed  characteris- 
tic defects.  By  him  a  good  deal  of  minor,  but  yet  profitable  practice  was 
placed  in  my  way,  and  also  the  treatment  of  some  patients  who  might 
be  considered  my  own.  The  first  fee  worth  speaking  about  that  I 
received  was  from  a  young  English  gentleman,  Mr.  Elton.  After 
about  a  mouth's  attendance,  when  about  to  leave  Naples,  he  put 
a  bank  note  of  £20  into  my  hiinds. 

The  year  of  my  engagement  had  not,  however,  elapsed  before  I 
was  recommended  by  Dr.  Reilly  to  an  English  family,  a  Mrs.  Colt- 
man,  wife  of  Judge  Cgltman,  and  her  two  nieces,  one  of  whom  was 


DB,    R.    R.    MADDEN.  19 


labouring  under  a  pulmonary  disease,  even  then  evidently  of  a  fatal 
character,  to  be  their  medical  attendant  to  England,  it  having  been 
decided  they  were  to  return  by  sea.  For  this  service  I  was  to 
receive  £100.  We  embarked  on  board  a  merchant  vessel,  the 
Maria  Croicther,  Captain  \Yalsh,  master,  in  the  latter  part  of  May 
1822,  and  after  a  voyage  of  thirty-five  days  arrived  in  England. 
A  few  days  previous  to  our  arrival,  my  patient's  illness  presented 
symptoms  threatening  her  immediate  death.  FuUy  aware  of  her 
danger,  she  expressed  her  desire  to  her  family  that  a  sum  of  a 
hundred  pounds  should  be  given  to  me  after  her  death  as  a  mark  of 
her  appreciation  of  my  medical  services.  She,  however,  again 
rallied  a  little  and  lived  to  reach  her  native  land.  On  arrival  in 
London,  the  celebrated  Dr.  BaiUie  was  called  in  consultation,  and 
fully  approved  of  all  that  had  been  done  for  her  ;  but,  unfortunately, 
no  medical  aid  could  avert  the  inevitable  end,  or  prolong  her  short 
career,  which  was  terminated  in  her  twenty-second  year,  a  little 
while  after  her  return  home, 

I  now  received  a  cheque  for  two  hundred  and  twenty  pounds, 
which  included  the  hundred  pounds  agreed  on  for  my  medical  attend- 
ance, the  hundred  pounds  legacy  from  Miss  Coltman,  and  a  further 
fee  of  twenty  pounds,  thus  making  up  a  sum  which  I  had  never 
before  been  master  of,  and  which  enabled  me  to  enter  at  St.  George's 
Hospital  and  take  out  a  winter  course  ot  medical  lectures.  At  the 
expiration  of  this,  however,  I  began  to  find  my  funds  running  low, 
and  determined  on  returning  to  Naples,  which  I  did,  via  Genoa, 
The  passage  thence  to  Naples  in  a  small  coasting  vessel  was  a  tedious 
and  tempestuous  one,  as  we  were  delayed  by  adverse  winds,  and  at 
one  time  were  driven  back  by  a  violent  gale  in  the  Gulf  of  Spezzia, 
during  which  I  perpetrated  the  subjoined : — 


LINES  TO  MORNING. 


Written  on  board  a  Felucca  in  the  Gulf  of  Spezzia,  18-22). 

Hail  rosy  morn !  whose  dawnlBg  beam  brings  hope 
To  each  abode  of  woe  and  wretchedness  ; 
Whose  gladsome  smile  dispels  the  phantoms  dire 
Of  night  and  all  its  train  of  miseries. 
Thy  rise  the  lark  doth  tunefully  proclaim, 
And  wakes  betimes  the  herald  of  the  morn, 
With  clarion  summons  calling  nature  forth 
From  silent  semblance  of  the  last  long  sleep, 
To  joyous  life  and  new-born  energies. 
Thy  rays  shed  blessings  on  the  sick  man's  couch. 


20  MEMOIRS 


The  dawu  at  last  of  long  expected  day 
Beams  through  each  crevice  and  outshines  the  dim 
Night  lamp,  that  served  to  show  the  chamber's  gloom, 
More  drear  and  dubious  to  the  suff'rers  sight ; 

And  still  at  evening's  close  the  man  of  care, 
Feels  sadness  ever  stealing  on  his  mind, 
Surrounding  gloom  invests  his  dismal  thoughts  ; 
The  dread  of  failure  tracks  each  plan  recalled, 
He  dreams  of  evils  crowding  on  his  path, 
Imagines  dangers — difficulties  near, 
And  makes  his  couch  a  hell  with  vain  alarms, 
Till  morning's  joyous  face  ilium's  the  East, 
Dispels  the  clouds,  and  dissipates  his  fears. 

The  sailor  tossing  on  the  swelling  surge, 
At  nightfall  glancing  at  the  gathering  clouds. 
He  well  presages  the  approaching  storm : 
Full  soon,  the  lightning  rives  the  livid  sky, 
The  tempest  rages  and  the  thunder  roars, 
And  all  is  terror,  till  the  morning  dawns. 
And  then  the  jarring  elements  are  still. 

The  lover's  sighs  have  banished  gentle  sleep, 

Night's  tedious  hours  are  counted  o'er  and  o'er. 

Or  if  he  slumbers,  horrid  fancies  rise  ; 

He  dreams  his  mistress  false — a  rival  loved, 

Feels  all  the  pangs  and  miseries— of  one 

"  Who  doats  yet  doubts,  suspects  yet  strongly  loves  ;  " 

But  when  Aurora  mounts  her  golden  Car, 

The  lover  wakes  once  more  to  joyous  hopes, 

Eejects  each  fear,  and  wonders  at  his  doubts, 

Smiles  at  such  thoughts  and  says — 'twas  but  a  dream. 

R.  R.  M. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

IIESIDEXOE    IN    LONDON    IN    1823. SECOND    VISIT    TO    NAPLES. 

On  returning  to  Naples,  I  was  welcomed  by  Dr.  Reilly  wdth  bis 
former  friendliness,  and  oilce  more  was  installed  as  a  member  of  bis 
household,  and  also  as  a  student  in  the  Neapolitan  University  and 
hospitals.  Not  many  months,  however,  bad  elapsed  when  I  was 
again  required  to  accompany  a  young  English  invalid,  Mr.  Baker, 
to  England.  A  hundred  pounds  was  the  fee  proposed,  and  I 
accepted  the  offer. 

On  the   21st  of  April  1823  we  embarked  on  board   a  miserable 
schooner'— the  Bctsij  of  Plymouth.     The  captain  was  a   man   very 


DR.    R      E.    MADDEN.  21 


loud  in  religious  professions,  which  he  unfortunately  discredited  by 
being  an  intolerable  drunkard.  Our  vessel  was  unseaworthy,  and 
from  the  moment  we  were  under  weigh,  throughout  the  voyage,  the 
average  leakage  was  some  thirteen  inches  an  hour.  Abreast  of 
Cadiz  the  north-west  wind  set  in,  and,  owing  to  the  drunkenness  of 
our  captain,  we  came  within  the  influence  of  the  trade  winds  before 
he  thought  of  tacking.  We  were  now  daily  approaching  Madeira, 
and  at  one  period,  when  only  thirty  miles  distant  from  that 
island,  and  our  provisions  were  getting  scanty,  in  the  course  of  the 
night  we  fell  in  with  a  German  brig,  with  the  master  of  which  our 
captain  exchanj^jed  his  last  tierce  of  salt  beef  for  a  cask  of  wine.  A 
shift  of  wind  at  length  took  us  back  into  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and 
matters  now  became  rather  alarming.  We  were  on  a  short  allow- 
ance of  water — a  pint  a  day ;  our  biscuits  were  nearly  out,  and 
worst  of  all,  my  patient  was  sinking  rapidly.  The  poor  fellow  was 
only  in  his  twentieth  year — a  gentleman  and  a  scholar.  The  disease 
in  his  lungs,  long  existing,  rapidly  progressed,  and  he  died  on  the 
fiftieth  day  of  our  voyage.  Behoving  it  would  be  more  gratifying 
to  the  feelings  of  his  family  that  his  remains  should  be  brought  to 
England,  and  very  much  against  the  will  of  the  crew  of  the  vessel, 
I  succeeded  in  embalming  the  'body  in  a  somewhat  rough  though 
effectual  manner  by  means  of  common  tar. 

On  the  seventy-fifth  day  of  our  voyage  from  Naples  we  anchored 
off  Plymouth.  I  immediately  communicated  with  Mr.  Baker's 
friends  at  Rochester,  whither  his  remains  were  carried  for  interment. 
After  remaining  a  few  days  at  Rochester,  and  receiving  many 
marks  of  attention  from  his  family,  I  proceeded  to  London.  Thence 
I  set  off  immediately  for  Ireland,  after  an  absence  of  nearly  three 
years,  to  visit  friends  and  relatives,  and  above  all  to  see  once  more  my 
mother.  The  passage  from  Liverpool  to  my  native  city  in  a  small  sail- 
ing vessel  was  unpleasant ;  the  wet  which  I  was  exposed  to  for  many 
hours  brought  on  a  fever,  and  on  arriving  in  Dublin,  instead  of 
hastening  to  my  often  longed  for  home,  I  was  forced,  not  wishing  to 
present  myself  as  an  invalid,  to  go  to  an  hotel  without  acquainting 
any  relative  of  my  illness.  The  attention  of  the  worthy  Dr. 
O'Reilly  soon  restored  me  to  health  and  to  my  family. 

Even  in  so  short  a  period  as  I  had  been  absent,  death  had  made 
no  inconsiderable  change  amongst  my  acquaintances.  My  youth- 
ful companions  were  scattered  over  the  kingdom,  and  of  the  few  who 
remained,  some,  as  I  thought,  received  me  coldly.  My  dear  sister, 
Mrs.  Cogan,  whose  affection  and  kindness  was  never  interrupted 
through  life,  had  become  the  mother  of  a  family,  my  brothers  were 
necessarily  busily  engaged  in  their  several  pursuits,  and  the  infirmi- 
ties of  age  were  accumulating  on  my  ever  good  parents.  It  was  the 
inevitable,  but  nevertheless  most  afflicting  experience  of  my  life  ; 
the  conviction  felt  for  the  first  time  that  I  was  no  longer  a  youth, 


22  MEMOIES 


and  that  home  was  no  longer  as  home  had  been.  I  remained  three 
weeks  in  Ireland,  and  then  bade  adieu,  perhaps  for  ever,  to  the 
country  which  contained  all  that  was  dear  to  me  on  earth. 

I  returned  to  London,  and  setting  to  work  at  the  prosecution  of 
my  surgical  studies,  went  through  the  course  of  lectures  and  hospital 
practice  in  St.  George's  Hospital,  under  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie.  This 
I  did  wholly  and  solely  at  my  own  expense  and  out  of  my  own  earn- 
ings, and  in  the  same  way  ultimately  completed  my  studies,  and 
took  out  my  diploma  as  a  Member,  and  subsequently  a  Fellow  of  the 
London  College  of  Surgeons,  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  at 
Erlangen,  and  likewise  the  license  as  a  General  Practitioner  of  the 
London  Apothecaries  Company. 


EARLY   LIFE    IN    LONDON.— MY    CONNECTION    WITH    THE    PRESS. 

On  my  arrival  in  London,  Sir  John  Grey  Egerton  and  his 
lady,  whose  acquaintance  I  had  made  in  Naples,  where  I  was 
introduced  to  them  by  Miss  Tierney  (daughter  of  George  Tierney, 
Esq.,  one  of  the  celebrities  of  the  age  of  Pitt  and  Fox),  received 
me  with  great  kindness.  Lady  Egerton  was  again  placed  under 
my  care,  and  continued  for  some  months  to  be  my  patient,  and  to 
remunerate  me  with  no  ordinary  liberaUty.  At  the  same  time  I 
was  enabled  to  maintain  myself  by  my  connection  with  the  London 
Press,  from  which  at  the  end  of  that  winter  I  was  in  receipt  of  four 
guineas  a  week.  For  this  I  was  principally  indebted  to  my 
relative,  Patrick  M.  Murphy,  afterwards  County  Court  Judge 
for  Cavan  (son  of  P.  Murphy,  Esq.,  of  Navanj,  who  was  then  a 
Parliamentary  reporter  of  eminence  on  the  Morniiig  Herald,  and  a 
writer  for  some  other  papers. 

My  first  engagement  was  with  Henry  Th\^'aites,  of  the  Herald 
(an  eccentric  but  a  very  kind-hearted  man,  and,  as  I  have  reason 
to  say,  to  me  a  most  considerate  and  generous  employer),  as  a 
reporter  in  the  Yice-Chancellor's  Court,  for  which  employment  of 
about  two,  and  sometimes  three  hours  a  day  I  was  to  receive  two 
guineas  a  week.  As  an  occasional  writer  of  articles,  principally 
theatrical,  and  literary  also,  I  received  two  guineas  more.  These 
four  guineas  amply  sufficed  to  defray  the  cost  of  my  medical  lectures 
and  hospital  fees,  and  contributed  towards  my  expenses  for  living. 

The  lirst  day's  attempt  at  reporting  would  have  ended  in  its 
hopeless  abandonment  if  Mr.  Murphy  had  nut  considerately  joined 
me  about  two  o'clock  in  the  Vice-Chancellor's  Court,  listened 
patiently  to  my  difficulties  and  perplexities,  and  taken '  charge 
of  my  nearly  unintelligible  notes  and  set  them  in  readable  order. 
A  few  lectures  in  the  mystery  of  reporting  enabled  me  from 
that  time  to  get  through  my  business  to  the  satisfaction  of  my 


DK.    B.    E.    MADDEN.  23 


worthy  employer.  The  first  literary  essay  I  published  in  the 
Herald  at  this  period  was  an  article  entitled  "  The  Vagabond," 
signed  "  Mutius,"  purporting  to  give  an  account  of  a  young  EngHsh- 
man's  Continental  tour,  turning  to  an  amusing  account  perplexities 
and  absurdities  arising  from  English  prejudices  and  unacquaint- 
ance  with  foreign  habits  and  manners.  In  this  and  some  follow- 
ing essays  of  the  same  character,  and  under  the  same  signature, 
a  good  deal  of  my  own  travelling  experience  was  given  somewhat 
ludicrously. 

My  connection  with  the  Press  as  one  of  the  staff  of  the  Morning 
Herald  now  brought  me  into  close  intimacy  with  several  of  its  chief 
members,  by  whom  I  was  introduced  to  the  places  of  resort 
frequented  by  the  leading  writers  on  the  London  periodicals  of  that 
day.  At  this  time  I  was  persuaded  to  become  "  an  Eccentric," /.e., 
the  member  of  a  society  which  then  comprised  all  the  talent  of  the 
Press,  the  Temple  and  the  Stage.  For  the  meetings  of  this  motley 
congress  a  saloon  was  fitted  up  in  the  Shakesperian  tavern,  where 

the  veteran  Mayor  D filled  the  post  of  President,  with  no  less 

eccentricity  than  dignity  and  address.  My  coubin  Mr.  Murph}^  having 
proposed  and  carried  my  admission,  I  was  introduced  to  the  assembly 
by  the  President,  who,  according  to  custom,  delivered  the  initiatory 
harangue. 

*  -K  ;!<  -;=  i- 

After  some  time,  although  my  earnings  were  sufficient  for  my 
wants  and  my  future  prospects  were  fairly  good,  I  grew  weary  of 
my  present  pursuits  and  determined  to  abandon  them,  being  seized 
with  a  wish  to  return  again  to  Naples,  where  I  looked  forward  to  the 
reahzation  of  Dr.  Pieilly's  promise  of  a  future  partnership  in  his 
medical  practice.  In  those  days — "  when  George  the  Fourth  was 
King," — the  journey  by  road  and  sea  was  a  very  different  affair  to 
what  it  is  at  the  present  time,  when  rail  and  steam  have  so  nearly 
bridged  over  the  most  remote  points  of  the  globe.  Thus,  in  the 
coach  in  which  I  jolted  down  to  Dover,  I  passed  away  the 
hours  by  inditing  a  few  doggerel  stanzas  descriptive  of  the  parting 
from  the  scenes  of  my  recent  avocations  : — 


FAEEWELL   TO   LONDON. 

(A  Stage  Coach  composition  in  the  good  old  times  of  travelling^. 


Roll  and  rumble,  jolt  and  jumble. 
Let  the  rattling  wheels  go  round! 

Hurry  skurry,  glorious  flurry, 
How  the  spaukiog  leaders  bound  I 


24  MEMOIRS 


Wilderness  of  brick  and  mortar, 
Town  unmatched  for  Barclay's  porter, 
Star  of  cities,  soul  of  barter 

How  I  loved  thee  who  can  tell  ? 
Paradise  of  blooming  lasses, 
Hell  of  horses,  mares  and  asses, 
Parent  of  all  sorts  of  gases, 

Monster  city  fare  thee  well ! 


II. 


Fashion  flaring,  splendour  glaring. 

Vice  in  virtue's  trappings  dight, 
Smirking  folly,  melancholy 

Masked  in  haggard  smiles,  good  night. 
Lath  and  plaster,  brick  and  Babel 
Architecture  few  are  able 
To  describe,  discarding  fable  ; 

Darling  Piegent-street,  good  bye  ! 
Lounge  of  mine  in  times  of  sadness. 
Lurking  place  for  studious  madness, 
Crowded  solitude  where  gladness. 

Winks  at  grief  and  pipes  her  eye. 


III. 

Charming  city,  what  a  pity, 

Money  flies  so  fast  away ! 
Moments  pleasant !  claims  incessant. 

Ghosts  of  joys  of  yesterday  ! 
Charnel  vast  of  hopes  defeated. 
Field  for  talent  well  competed, 
Town  that  teems  with  authors  cheated. 

Vampire  publishers,  adieu ! 
Goschen  of  all  light  that's  mental, 
Clime  of  all  least  oriental, 
Jail  of  all,  who  have  no  rental. 

Or  whoever  dealt  with  Jew. 


Public  writers,  private  fighters. 

Bards  divine  and  birds  of  prey. 
All  one  feather  flock  together. 

One  of  passage  flies  away. 
Every  author,  Whig  or  Tory, 
Jealous  of  another's  glory. 
Whet  your  beak  and  whilst  it's  gory, 

Whimper  o'er  the  flesh  you  tear. 
Every  circle  has  its  shamble, 

Every  coterie  its , 

Every  grave's  a  place  to  scramble. 

For  another's  fame  'ts  clear. 


DE.    R.    E.    MADDEN.  25 


Wrangle,  Jangle,  maiil  and  mangle, 

Let  no  rival  near  your  throne  ! 
Every  brother  hates  another, — 

Envy  calls  her  craft  yout  own  ! 
Some  are  there  who  woo  the  muses, 

Friendship  of  no  fraud  accuses, 
In  whose  structure,  nature  uses 

All  that's  excellent  and  good. 
Modest  merit !  ardent  spirit ! 
Honor  shrined  in  which  doth  dwell 
Wit  that  wounds  not,  truth  that  bounds  not, 

Beattie,  friend  of  friends,  farewell ! 

R.  R.  M. 


THIED    JOURNEY    TO    IliALY. LIFE    IN    NAPLES    IN    1824. 

Leaving  London  with  a  light  heart,  and  a  purse  as  light,  and  taking 
the  diligence  from  Calais,  I  journeyed  up  slowly  to  Paris,  where  I 
remained  for  a  week,  and  then  went  on  to  Marseilles.  Here  I 
embarked  once  more  for  Na]>les,  paying  a  hundred  francs  for  the 
passage. 

On  reaching  Naples,  I  found  that  my  expectations  of  obtaining  a 
share  in  Dr.  Reilly's  practice  were  doomed  to  disappointment,  as 
during  the  interval  which  had  elapsed  since  my  departure  he  had 
taken  his  stepson  into  partnorMhip,  and  subsequently  gave  that 
position  to  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Charles  Bage,  a  young  surgeon  (son 
of  Charles  Bage,  Esq.,  of  Shrewsbury),  who  ultimately  succeeded 
him,  and  died  in  July  1851.  Nevertheless,  Dr.  Reilly  received  me 
with  his  accustomed  kindness,  in  fact  I  was  treated  exactly  as 
thougli  I  were  a  member  of  his  family,  and  had  ray  place  at  his 
table  whenever  I  choose  to  avail  myself  of  it.  By  his  advice  I 
removed  to  one  of  the  best  quarters  of  the  city,  frequented  by 
English  visitors.  Riviere  di  Chiaja,  where,  within  a  short  time,  and 
on  the  strength  of  his  recommendation,  I  obtained  a  fair  share  of 
practice  amongst  the  affluent  foreign  health-seekers  with  whom 
Naples  was  then  thronged. 

In  this  way  I  was  now  introduced  to  Lord  and  Lady  Blessington, 
who  became  not  merely  ray  patients  but  also  ray  greatest  friends, 
and  whose  biography  many  years  subsequently  I  published.  In 
their  company,  and  in  that  of  Count  D'Orsay,  Sir  William  Gell, 
my  intimate  friend,  Charles  Mathews,  the  actor ;  Mr.  West- 
macott,  the  sculptor;  Unwnn,  the  painter;  John  Herschcll,and  Signer 
Piazzi,  the  astronomer,  I  saw  all  the  wonders  of  that  glorious  city 
and  its  environs,  with  w-hich  my  previous  visits  had  made  me  familiar ; 
for  on  no  less  than  five  occasions  did  I  ascend  to  the  summit  of  Vesu- 


26  MEMOIRS 


vius,  thrice  visited  the  buried  magnificence  of  Pompeii  and  the 
galleries  of  Herculaneum,  paid  my  homage  to  Virgil's  tomb,  explored 
every  winding  of  the  Sibyl's  Grotto,  and  re-travelled  the  fields  of 
Elysium. 

Who  that  ever  then  enjoyed  the  elegant  hospitality  of  the  Countess 
of  Blessington  in  her  delightful  Neapolitan  abode,  and  the  brilUant 
society  of  the  eminent  persons  by  whom  she  was  habitually  sur- 
rounded there,  can  forget  the  scene — the  hostess,  and  the  circle 
that  imparted  to  the  Villa  Belvidere  some  of  the  Elysian  charac- 
teristics which  poetry  has  ascribed  to  a  neighbouring  locality? 
Many  a  glorious  evening  did  I  pass  with  tlie  Blessingtons  in  1823 
and  the  early  part  of  1824,  saihng  in  the  Bay  of  Naples  in  their 
yacht  the  "  Bolivar,''  which  had  belonged  to  Lord  Byron  ;  and  not 
unfrequently,  when  the  weather  was  particularly  fine,  and  the  moon- 
light lent  additional  beauty  to  the  shores  of  Portici  and  Castella- 
mara,  Sorrento  and  Posilipo,  the  night  was  far  advanced  before  we 
returned  to  the  Mole.  The  furniture  of  the  cabin  of  the  "  Bolivar  " 
reminded  one  of  its  former  owner  :  the  table  on  which  he  wrote  and 
the  sofa  on  which  he  reclined  were  in  the  places  where  they  stood 
when  he  owned  the  yacht.  Byron  was  very  partial  to  this  vessel, 
which  had  been  built  for  him  expressly  at  Leghorn.  On  one  of  the 
last  of  these  occasions  I  was  of  the  party  when,  having  dined  on 
board  and  skirted  along  the  shores  of  Castellamara  and  Sorrento, 
the  wind  fell  about  dusk,  and  we  lay  becalmed  in  the  bay  till  two  or 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  some  six  or  eight  miles  from  the  shore. 
The  bay  was  never  more  beautiful  than  on  that  delightful  night : 
the  moonlight  could  not  be  more  brilliant.  The  pale-blue  sky  was 
without  a  cloud,  the  sea  smooth  and  shining  as  a  mirror,  and  at 
every  splash  of  an  oar  glittered  with  phosphorescent  flashes  of 
vivid  light.  But  all  the  beauties  of  the  bay  on  that  occasion  wasted 
their  loveliness  in  vain  on  the  weary  eyes  of  Lady  Blessington,  who 
diverted  her  enmd  by  grave  banter  at  the  unconscious  expense  of 
"  Captain  Smith,"'  a  lieutenant  in  the  navy,  and  a  very  great 
original,  who  commanded  the  yacht. 

Agreeable  as  my  life  in  Naples  had  become,  and  great  as  were  its 
social  attractions  and  advantages,  I  soon  began  to  reflect  that, 
although  my  professional  income  was  probably  as  good  as  I  had  any 
right  to  expect,  the  dolcefar  niente  existence  of  my  distinguished 
friends  was  not  suitable  to  a  young  medical  man  who  had  to  make 
his  way  in  the  world  entirely  by  kis  own  exertions.  And  being,  as 
I  have  already  said,  disappointed  in  the  main  object  with  which  I 
had  returned  to  Naples,  and  having  managed  to  save  a  little  money 
(under  a  hundred  pounds)  from  my  practice  there,  I  resolved  with 
this  to  indulge  once  more  my  love  for  travel,  and  this  time  to  make 


CE.    E.    S.    MADDEN. 


27 


my  way  to  the  East,  having  reason  to  hope  that  I  might  there 
more  profitably  follow  my  profession,  and  at  the  same  tS^^  act  as 
special  corresi^udent  in  Turkey  for  my  old  friend  Mr.  ThwaUes  of 
the  Mormng  Herald.  Before  my  departure,  Lord  Blessinrn  and 
2ct^^T'"""''"'T  "  -^f  P^*^^  P™^^^'-«''  f-  "^«  »  number S 
Empire.  Amongst  the  many  others  of  a  similar  kind,  I  had  for 
instance,  a  letter  addressed  to  one  of  the  Jlinisters,  the  Hi4  Admi  a 
ot  the  Egyptian  fleet,  from  his  intimate  fnend  Sir  William  Gel"  m 
fevour  of  one  whom  he  was  phased  to  call-',  un  amico  mio,  il  Signore 
Madden,  chirurgo  de  grande,  talento,"  for  employment  as  meS 

availed  my,elf  however,  of  these  introductory  letters,  the  faded 
originals  ot  which  are  stiU  by  me,  and  which,  had  thev  been  used 
as  they  were  intended,  might  probably  have  been  proved  of  no  little 
service  to  me.  In  the  autumn  of  1824  1  took  my  leave  of 
Naples  and  embarked  for  Sniynia. 


CHAPTER    V. 


FIEST   VISIT    TO    THE    EAST. 

I  REACHKD  Smyrna  at  the  end   of  eleven  days.     This  town   like 
most  other  Turkish  capitals,  1  found  a  lilthy  congregation  of  narow 
lanes  and  pestilential  alleys.  The  Frank  merchantslire"  erv  mm' o" 
ous,   and  have  an  excellent  assembly-room   wherein,    during  the 
Carnival    many  pleasant  balls  are  given.     The  misfortune  of  the 
society  of  the  merchants  of  Smyrna  is  that  the  subject  of  fiL  or 
raisms  is  ever  the  fruitful  theme  of  conversation.     You  ask  abou 
the  gardens  of  Bournabut,  and  you  hear  that  figs  abound  there 
you  inquire  about  the  curiosities  of  the  place,  and  thev  lead  you  to 
the  fig  mar  ;  you   solicit  information  on  politics,  and  you  are  told 
that  f  gs  are  low  :  and  wlien  you  seek  for  further  information    vou 

toj^ic  IS  figs  figs  figs-and  the  very  name  I  apprehend  will  be  found 
wutteu  on  their  hearts  at  their  decease.  During  mv  short  stav  f 
attended  some  Greek  famUies  here,  who  ampl^  repaid  any  little 
service  I  rendered  them  by  their  politeness  ami  attention^ 

i  rom  Smyrna  to  Constantinople,  a  distance  of  some  three  hundred 
mil's,  I  had  to  travel  on  horseback, „ the  fatigue  of  this  loiiLt 
rough  route  through  Asia  Minor  being  moreover  aggravated  bv  the 


28  MEMOIRS 


spectacle  of  a  fine  country  and  a  rich  soil  uncultivated  and  unpeopled. 
For  whole  days  we  rode  on  our  way  without  seeing  hardly  an  inhabit- 
ant, and  indeed  from  Brusa  to  Magnesia  without  viewing  as  many 
scattered  houses  as  would  form  a  decent  hamlet.  Nothing  could  be 
more  dreary  than  to  traverse  a  country  for  which  nature  had  done 
everything  and  man  nothing.  In  short,  the  traces  of  Moslem 
despotism  were  written  in  legible  characters  in  the  desolation  I 
encountered  at  every  step  in  the  face  of  the  neglected  soil,  and  the 
stamp  of  degradation  was  imprinted  on  the  features  of  the  few 
wretched  peasants  we  encountered  in  the  towns.  It  was  evident, 
indeed,  that  the  country  through  which  I  passed  was  "  a  land  of 
tyrants  and  a  den  of  slaves." 

I  travelled  with  the  Tartar  who  conveyed  the  post,  and  night 
and  day,  with  the  intermission  of  two  or  three  hours  for  repose,  we 
continued  our  route.  There  was  no  other  road  than  a  horse  track 
across  the  country,  and  at  night  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  keep  in  the 
right  direction  or  to  retain  our  seats.  It  rained  incessantly  the 
first  three  days :  I  had  no  means  of  changing  my  apparel, 
and  what  with  cold  and  excessive  fatigue,  on  the  evening 
of  the  third  day  I  had  so  violent  a  paroxysm  of  ague  that  the 
Tartar  was  obliged  to  hold  me  on  the  saddle.  The  pommels  of 
these  Turkish  saddles,  and  the  horrible  jog-trot  of  the  horses,  are 
exceedingly  inconvenient  to  Europeans.  My  fever  made  me  feel 
the  fatigue  ten  times  more  than  I  otherwise  should,  and  had  it  not 
been  for  the  kindness  of  the  Tartar,  I  verily  believe  I  should  have 
been  left  upon  the  road.  This  good  fellow,  when  I  sat  shivering  in 
my  wet  clothes,  dosed  me  with  the  brandy  of  the  country,  and 
forced  me  to  drink  almost  his  entire  stock  of  it  in  the  course  of  the 
journey.  It  prevented  the  further  access  of  the  intermittent  fever 
for  the  last  two  days  of  the  ride,  and  thus  probably  contributed  to 
save  my  life. 

At  long  last,  however,  we  reached  Constantinople,  and  never  shall 
I  forget  my  first  impressions  of  the  capital  of  the  Moslem  world. 
Whoever  would  paint  the  picturesque  in  all  its  loveliness  has  but  to 
gaze  on  Stamboul  from  the  sea.  Whoever  would  pourtray  the  bar- 
baresque  in  all  its  horrors  has  but  to  land  and  wade  through  the 
abominations  of  Constantinonle.  It  is  not  my  intention  to  reiterate 
all  the  charms  of  the  Bosphorus,  or  the  praises  of  its  fairy  scenery, 
its  smiling  shores  studded  with  enchanting  kiosks,  and  graced  with 
lofty  minarets  and  splendid  mosques.  AU  this  may  be  taken  for 
granted  without  my  description.  And  likewise,  at  the  same  time, 
take  it  for  granted  that  the  traveller  who  sets  his  foot  in  the  Turkish 
metropolis  is  doomed  to  traverse  the  filthiest  and  most  ill-constructed 
city  in  the  world.  The  population  of  Constantinople,  with  its  suburbs, 
at  the  time  of  my  first  visit  was  estimated  at  about  800,000.  The 
city  is  triangular  in  form,  and  lies  upon  a  neck  of  land  rising  with 


DE.  K.  R.    MADDEN.  29 


a  steep  acclivity  with  several  mounts,  which  are  intersected  by  nar- 
row lanes  and  encompassed  by  crumbling  walls  and  ancient  turrets 
1  He  two  most  imposing  buildings  are  the  ScragHo  of  the  Sultan 
which  occupies  a  large  portion  of  the  site  of  the  ancient  Byzantium' 
and  the  mosque  of  San  Sophia,  whose  splendid  dome  dominates 
tne  city,  and  whose  sacred  aspect  has  survived  its  degradation      In 

pi  owl  for  the  diversion  they  afford  in  worrying  all  Frank  passengers, 
a  subject  of  unceasing  amusement  to  the  Turkish  citizens.  I  seldom 
passed  through  the  bazaars  without  having  some  of  those  do^s 
set  on  me  by  the  men,  or  having  stones  thrown  at  me  by  boys,  Sr 
bemg  spit  upon  by  the  women,  and  being  cursed  as  an  infidel  and  a 
catrre  by  aU.  My  experience  was  that  of  every  European  in  Con- 
stantinople at  this  time. 

Before  I  left  Naples,  and  on  the  passage  to  Smyrna,  I  had  suc- 
ceeded m  acquiring  some  little  smattering  of  the  ordinary  phrases 
and  medical  terms  in  most  common  use,  in  Turkish  as  well  as  in 
Arabic.     This  extremely  limited  colloquial   stock  of  Easternisms, 
slender  as  it  was,  I  found  of  no  little  advantage  in  facihtating  m^ 
opportunities  of  acquiring  some  social  and  professional  knowledge 
01  the  people  amongst  whom  I  was  now  located.     Shortly  after  my 
arrival  m   Constantinople,  I  was  indebted  to  an  old  French  .ZocJ 
(formerly,   as  I  afterwards    learned,  a  -  tambour   major "   in  the 
jbrench   army)    for  getting  acquainted   with  many  famihes,   both 
iurkish  and  Levantine.     The  old  gentleman  was  a  '^  bon  vivant," 
and  had  the  ta  ent  of  making  himself  agreeable  wherever  he  went : 
he  had  one  little  fault-he  very  seldom  was  sober  after  dinner ;  but 
the  lurks  hked  him,  and  he  was  the  only  Frank  in  Constantinople 
who  ate  his  dinner  at  the  expens.e  of  Moslems  almost  every  day  in 
the  week.     As  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  a  favourite  of"  his;  he 
took   me  with  him  to  his  friends  as  often  as  he  could  induce  me  to 
go,  aiid  i  thus  had  an  opportunity  of  observing  the  domestic  life  of 
the  iurkish  upper  classes,  and  of  partaking  of  their  lavish  hospi- 
tafity,   m  which   quality  not  even  the  Irish  surpass  them.     I  have 
been   at  dinners  where  as  many  as  forty  dishes  have  appeared  in 
succession   commencing  (for  they  are  opposed   to  us  in  everythino) 
with  the  dessert,  consisting  of  sweetmeats  and  preserves,  then  whet- 
ting the  appetite  with  raw  spirits  in  abundance ;  for  (however  con 
traiy  it  may  be  to  the  Mahometan  doctrines,  of  which  they  make 
such  loud  profession)  even  the  most  exalted  personages  in  Turkey 
are  commonly  addicted  to    drink,  the  very   highest  classes,     I  do 
not  here  allude  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  drinking  rum  and 
rakee  as   Christians  might  drink   small  beer.     The  scenes  which 
follow  these  excesses  only  Hogarth  could  depict :  the  stohd  ^ravitv 
of  the  Moslem  is  overcome,  his  mirth  is  like  the  frisking  of  a  camel 
exceedingly  awkward  and  ridiculous,  and  often  eventuates  in  a  song' 


§6  MEMOIRS 


if  such    a  term  may  be    applied  to    an    interminable    dump,  not 
musical,  but  most  melancholy. 

As  I  have  already  said,  my  chief  object  in  visiting  the  Turkish 
Empire  was  the  hope  that  I  might  there  be  able  to  follow  my  pro- 
fession with  advantage,  nor  did  I  lose  time  in  setting  about  this  as 
soon  as  possible  after  my  arrival  in  Constantinople.  Some  account 
of  the  extraordinary  character  of  medical  practice  in  this  country 
as  set  down  from  my  own  experience  may  therefore  not  be  devoid  of 
interest.  In  my  notes  I  lind  it  stated  that  there  were  then  about  lifty 
medical  practitioners  in  Constantinople,  principally  Franks  from 
Italy  and  Malta.  Of  this  number  there  were  perhaps  five  regularly 
educated  physicians,  and  two  of  these  were  English  gentlemen,  highly 
respected  both  by  the  Turks  and  Franks.  Every  medico  has  his 
allotted  quarter  :  he  beats  this  ground  daily  in  pursuit  of  patients, 
and  visits  all  the  coffee-houses  in  the  district,  with  a  Greek  drago- 
man as  interpreter  at  liis  heels,  whose  occupation  it  is  to  scent  out 
sickness  and  to  extol  the  doctor.  They  are  ever  to  be  found  on  the 
most  public  bench  of  the  coffee-shop,  smoking  with  profound  gravity, 
and  prying  into  the  features  of  those  around  them  for  a  symptom 
of  disease.  I  had  perforce  to  follow  the  common  custom  and  sub- 
mit to  this  degradation  to  get  practice.  The  first  day  my 
dragoman,  who  had  left  the  service  of  a  Roman  doctor,  and  had 
been  practising  on  his  own  account  since  his  discharge  (for  all  these 
dragomen  become  doctors),  undertook  to  teach  me  my  professional 
duty,  which  he  made  to  consist — firstly,  in  never  giving  advice  before 
I  "ot  my  fee ;  secondly, '  in  never  asking  questions  of  the  sick  ; 
thirdly,  in  never  giving  intelligible  answers  to  the  friends.  He  also 
advised  me  to  look  for  symptoms  only  in  the  pulse,  and  to  limit  my 
prognosis  to  three  words — "  In  Shallah,"  or  "  Please  the  Lord,"  for 
doubtful  cases  ;  and  "  Alia  kharim,"  or  "  God  is  great,"  for  desperate 
ones.  I  took  my  post  in  the  coffee-shop,  had  my  pipe  and  coffee, 
whilst  my  dragoman  entered  into  conversation  with  the  Turks  about 
us.  I  soon  heard  him  narrating  a  history  of  a  wonderful  cure 
which  he  alleged  he  had  seen  me  perform  some  days  before  on  the 
body  of  a  dying  Effendi ;  how  I  had  taken  out  his  liver  and  put  it 
in  again  after  scraping  off  the  disease,  and  how  the  patient  got  well 
the  next  day  and  gave  me  five  purses.  I  was  of  course  exceedingly 
annoyed  at  all  this  absurdity,  but  the  fellow  seemed  to  mind  my 
anger  very  little,  and  merely  reproved  ''  my  want  of  prudence  "  with 
a  irown. 

A  well  dressed  man,  who  had  been  sitting  at  my  side  in  silence 
for  half  an  hour,  at  last  recollected  that  he  had  a  wife  or  two  unwell, 
and  very  gravely  asked  me  "  what  I  would  cure  a  sick  woman  for  ?  " 
I  inquired  her  malady.  "  She  was  sick."  **  In  what  manner  was 
she  affected?"  "  Why,  she  could  not  eat."  On  these  premises  I 
was  to  undertake  to  cure  a  patient  who,  for  aught  I  knew,  might 


i)R.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  gl 


be  at  that  moment  in  articnh  mortis.  I  could  not  bring 
myself  to  drive  the  bargain,  so  I  left  my  enraged  dragoman 
to  go  through  the  pleasing  process.  I  heard  bim  ask  a 
hundred  piastres,  and  heard  him  insist  by  his  father's  head  and  his 
mxOther's  soul  that  so  good  a  doctor  never  took  less.  However,  after 
nearly  an  hour's  haggling,  I  saw  fifty  piastres  put  into  his  hand.  I 
visited  my  patient,  and  had  to  ascertain  her  disease  as  well  as  I 
could  with  a  door  between  us,  she  being  in  one  apartment  and  I 
another  ;  the  door  was  ajar,  and  through  this  her  head,  enveloped  in 
a  sheet,  was  occasionally  projected  to  answer  my  questions.  I,  how- 
ever, was  enabled  to  collect  enough  in  this  way,  and  from  the  attend- 
ants, to  cause  me  to  suspect  she  had  a  cancer.  I  did  all  that  under 
such  circumstances  I  could  vvell  do — I  gave  her  an  opiate  ;  and 
after  smoking  the  inevitable  pipe  and  drinking  sherbet,  took  my 
leave. 

A  few  days  afterwards  I  was  sent  for  to  a  consultation  which  was 
to  be  held  on  the  case  of  a  Pasha  of  high  rank.  I  found  the  patient 
lying  on  a  mattress  spread  on  the  carpet,  as  is  customary  in  Turkey, 
and  in  his  habiliments,  none  of  which  are  here  doffed  at  night.  A 
crowd  of  doctors  were  around  the  sick  man,  and  amongst  them  were 
the  friends,  slaves,  and  the  followers  of  tlie  patient,  the  latter  taking 
an  active  share  in  the  consultation.  But  he  who  took  on  himself 
to  broach  the  case  was  a  Turkish  priest,  who  administered  to  the 
diseases  both  of  soul  and  body.  He  prefaced  his  discourse  with 
the  usual  origin  of  all  things  in  general  and  the  praises  of  the  Koran 
in  particular.  This,  he  said,  he  had  consulted  in  the  present  case  ; 
and  "  the  repetition  of  the  word  *  honey  '  he  discovered  tallied  witli 
the  number  of  days  his  highness  suffered.  Did  not  the  bee  suck 
the  juice  of  every  herb  ?  Was  there  not  wax  in  honey?  Did  not 
wax  contain  oil  ?  Oh,  illustrious  doctors,"  he  concluded,  "  let  us 
put  our  trust  and  administer  the  dose  :  our  patient  has  been  thirty- 
six  days  sick,  therefore  let  him  have  six-and-thirty  drops  of  oil 
of  wax  every  six-and-thirty  hours  !  I  !  "  The  moment  he  ended, 
all  the  servants,  and  even  many  of  the  doctors,  applauded  this 
discourse.  There  was  no  time  allowed  for  any  further  discussion. 
Each  of  the  consultants  got  four  Spanish  dollars,  and  the  unfortu- 
nate sick  man  was  forthwith  left  to  his  fate.  On  the  way  out  I 
expressed  my  astonishment  to  one  of  the  faculty,  an  old  Armenian,  at 
this,  to  me,  novel  remedy.  He  looked  round  cautiously  and  whispered 
in  my  ear  the  word  "  Poison  !  "  On  further  inquiry  I  found  that 
the  bulk  of  the  patient's  property  was  invested  in  a  mosque.  In 
spite  of  the  remonstrance  of  my  dragoman,  I  immediately  made 
my  way  back  to  the  room,  and  gave  the  attendants  to  understand 
distinctly  that  their  master  would  die  if  he  took  the  medicine.  The 
poor  man  died,  however,  and  I  heard  of  the  event  about  a  month 
afterwards. 


82  MEMOIRS 


I  was  shortly  after  called  to  a  man  who  was  said  to  have  a  fever. 
When  I  visited  him  I  asked  what  was  the  matter  with  him,  where  he 
felt  pain '?  but  his  friends  made  the  customary  reply  :  "  That  is  what 
we  waat  to  know  from  you ;  feel  his  pulse  and  tell  us."  Not  one  symptom 
could  I  get  from  either  the  patient  or  his  attendants.  I  thought, 
however,  from  what  I  was  able  to  observe  that  I  was  warranted  in 
taking  blood.  I  did  so,  and  when  binding  up  the  arm,  accidently 
discovered  that  his  other  hand  had  been  blown  away  by  the  explosion 
of  a  gun  a  week  previously,  and  that  the  mutilated  stump  was  still 
undressed.  No  wonder  that  the  poor  creature  shortly  afterwards  died 
from  tetanus.  A  short  experience  of  such  cases  as  these,  which  were 
of  daily  recurrence,  sufficed  to  convince  me  how  difficult  it  would  be 
for  any  medical  man  to  deal  with  such  a  people,  and  how  rarely  they 
could  be  benefited  by  him.  I  was,  moreover,  thoroughly  disgusted  with 
the  customary  routine  and  unworthy  surroundings  of  medical  practice 
in  the  Turkish  capital,  and  as  soon  as  I  had  satisfied  my  curiosity 
with  exploring  all  the  wonders  of  this  semi-barbarous  city,  I  resolved 
to  shake  off  the  dust  from  my  feet  and  to  turn  my  wandering  steps 
elsewhere. 


CHAPTEE    VI. 

VISIT    TO    CRETE    DURING    THE    GREEK    WAR   OF  INDEPENDENCE. 

From  Constantinople  I  took  my  departure,  about  the  end  of 
December,  in  a  small  trading  vessel  bound  for  Candia.  This  passage 
occupied  no  less  than  fifteen  days,  being  interrupted  by  several  calls 
at  intervening  ports.  Of  one  of  these  delays  I  gladly  took  advan- 
tage to  visit  the  plains  of  Troy  and  the  tomb  of  Hector.  I  set  out 
with  my  travelling  companion,  the  Austrian  Consul  at  Candia,  from 
the  Dardanelles  on  horseback,  and  arrived  at  noon  at  Chiblak, 
which  is  sometimes  erroneously  described  as  ancient  Troy.  We 
next  proceeded  to  the  promontory  of  Sigeum,  close  by  which  are 
the  tombs  of  Achilles  and  Patroclus,  and  near  the  shore  are  evident 
remains  of  a  moat  and  a  redoubt,  probably  the  remains  of  the 
Grecian  camp.  We  went  over  the  ground  with  Homer  for  our  guide. 
Nine  miles  from  the  shore,  at  the  bottom  of  the  plain,  and  at  the 
foot  of  Mount  Ida,  is  the  site  of  Troy,  the  modern  Bournarbashi. 
On  an  eminence  above  the  town  stands  the  tomb  of  Hector,  a 
pyramid  of  disjointed  stones.  From  this  point  the  view,  extending 
to  the  Hellespont,  was  exquisite;  and  whether  the  association^ 
which  constituted  half  its  charm  emanated  from  delusion  or  not,  I 
certainly  enjoyed  a  few  moments  of  pure  happiness,  and  perhaps 
only  three  or  four  such  moments  occur  dumig  one's  life. 


DR.    R.    E.    MADDEN,  33 


We  breakfasted  at  the  tomb  of  Hector,  and  passed  the  day  ex- 
l^lonag  the  scene  of  so  many  wonders.  At  nightfall  we  returned  to 
the  Aga's  house  at  Bournarbashi,  but  he  was  from  home  and  we 
were  refused  admission ;  at  last,  however,  we  obtained  some  shelter 
under  a  miserable  shed.  B'or  supper  we  had  a  little  sour  milk  and 
boiled  rice  mixed  together  in  a  dish.  V/e  got  no  rest  here,  and, 
had  we  been  inchned  to  have  studied  the  operations  of 
animated  nature,  the  opportunity  w^as  extensive.  We  rose  unre- 
freshed,  and  little  pleased  with  Trojan  entertainment,  directed 
our  course  back  to  the  Dardanelles.  On  the  way  we  met 
with  no  impediment  except  the  not  unusual  one  of  being  worried 
by  a  pack  of  savage  mongrels  at  the  door  of  a  Khan,  to  the  great 
delight  of  the  Turkish  spectators  by  whom  they  were  set  at  us,  and 
one  of  whom  said,  *'  It  was  but  fitting  that  one  dog  should  fatten 
on  another."  Nor  was  it  until  we  exhibited  our  pistols  that  the  brutes 
were  called  off  and  we  were  allowed  to  proceed  on  our  way  to  Abjdos. 
It  was  from  the  opposite  European  side  that  Lord  Byron  swam  with 
the  current,  which  runs  at  almost  four  miles  an  hour ;  but  I  believe 
he  would  have  found  it  impossible  to  have  crossed  from  Abydos  to 
Europe.  Yet  I  covet  not  the  society  of  that  traveller  who  looks 
across  the  Hellespont  and  laughs  at  the  story  of  Leander.  Heaven 
knows  the  enthusiasm  of  the  traveller  is  early  enough  worn  out 
without  making  a  vaunt  of  its  destruction. 


RESIDENCE    IN    CANDIA    DURING    THE    GREEK    WAR. 

Candia,  April  28th. — I  arrived  here  three  months  ago,  on  my  way  to 
Alexandria,  purposing  to  remain  a  few  days :  how  much  longer  I 
may  stop  the  star  which  watches  over  the  destiny  of  travellers 
must  determine.  .  .  .  This  beautiful  island,  the  largest  in  the 
Archipelago,  the  most  fertile  and  most  important  for  its  position, 
being  equi-distant  from  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  is  also  famed  for 
the  noble  port  of  Suda,  in  which  the  largest  navy  in  the  world 
might  ride  in  safety.  It  is  now  in  the  possession  of  Mehemet 
Ali,  the  Egyptian  Viceroy,  by  whose  Albanian  troops  the  native 
Greek  peasantry  have  been  ruthlessly  exterminated,  until  hardly 
as  many  of  them  are  left  as  suffice  to  cultivate  the  gardens  which 
surround  the  town.  There  is  scarcely  a  day  I  do  not  hear  of 
additional  atrocities  of  this  kind.  A  few  days  ago,  on  my  way  to 
the  camp,  I  saw  the  body  of  a  murdered  peasant  lying  with  his  head 
cut  open,  the  blood  yet  streaming,  and  the  poor  wretch's  donkey, 
with  the  pannier  attached  to  it,  standing  by  the  side  of  its  dead 
master.  I  am  now  accustomed  to  horrors,  but  this  spectacle  sickened 
me  to  the  heart. 

•i 


84  MEMOIRS 


I  have  taken  up  my  abode  with  the  Austrian  Consul  at  Canea. 
On  my  arrival  he  presented  me  to  Ibrahim  Pasha,  who  had  put  in 
at  Suda  a  few  days  ago  with  a  portion  of  his  shattered  fleet,  having 
been  engaged  with  the  Greeks  off  the  island  two  successive  days. 
The  troops  were  immediately  disembarked,  and  the  only  swamp  in 
the  neighbourhood  was  chosen  for  the  encampment.  No  rational 
precautions  whatsoever  were  taken  by  Ibrahim  for  the  preservation 
of  his  army,  and  the  consequence  was  that  he  lost  one-fifth  of  it 
before  he  left  the  island.  Sullen  with  disappointment,  he  sits  daily 
on  the  poop  of  his  frigate,  venting  his  fury  on  his  unfortunate  people 
and  inspiring  terror  all  around  him.  One  day  he  flogs  a  sailor  for 
some  awkward  manoeuvre  ;  another,  shoots  a  soldier  for  some  slight 
insubordination  ;  now  bastinadoes  a  captain  in  his  navy,  or  strikes 
him  in  his  rage,  and  foams  like  a  madman.  I  saw  him  take  an  old 
captain  by  the  beard,  who  had  been  out  in  a  hea\y  gale  and  could 
not  make  the  harbour :  he  held  him  for  some  minutes  with  his  left 
hand  at  arms  length,  as  if  he  were  going  to  use  his  sword,  but  he 
only  shook  the  old  man,  and  said  if  it  had  not  been  for  his  grey 
beard  his  head  should  be  at  his  feet.  The  other  stretched  out  his 
neck,  as  much  as  to  say  his  life  was  at  his  mercy,  and  then  cringed 
at  his  feet  and  attemjoted  to  kiss  his  garment,  but  the  haughty 
Ibrahim  spurned  him  from  his  presence.  His  officers  are  every 
day  complaining  to  us  of  his  ferocity  ;  and  I  have  already  counted 
thirteen  bloated  bodies  of  his  massacred  people  washed  on  the  beach 
and  there  suffered  to  remain.  The  Austrian  Consul  one  day 
reckoned  four. 

Some  days  ago  he  asked  me  if  our  government  had  given  any 
more  money  to  the  Greeks  ?  I  assured  him  that  the  government 
had  given  none,  and  that  the  loan  was  the  voluntary  contribution 
of  individuals  over  whom  the  government  had  no  control.  He 
laughed  at  the  idea,  and  his  laughter  was  of  that  sort  which  makes 
the  observer  shudder.  Still  to  myself  he  was  personally  civil,  and 
strongly  pressed  me  to  visit  the  Morea  with  him,  promising  that 
if  I  did  so  I  should  have  ample  remuneration  :  as  many  horses  and 
servants  as  I  wished,  and  when  afloat  to  have  my  quarters  in  his  own 
frigate.  The  drift  of  his  condescension  was  simply  that  he  wanted  my 
medical  services.  I  thunked  him  for  his  very  kind  offer,  and  pleaded 
the  necessity  of  my  journey  to  Egypt,  stating  that  as  long  as  I 
remained  on  the  island  I  should  render  every  service  in  my  power  to 
his  people.  I  was  most  desirous  of  visiting  Greece  at  this  time ;  but,  to 
go  there  in  the  train  of  her  Turkish  enslavers  in  the  service  of  this 
ferocious  Pasha,  was  a  degradation  to  which  I  would  not  voluntarily 
submit. 

The  medical  officers  of  Ibrahim's  army  were  the  refuse  of  all 
nations,  and  I  am  proud  to  say  that  there  was  not  one  Englishman 
amongst  them.     Most  of  them  wtre  Italian,  some  of  them  had  been 


DR.    R.    E.    MADDEN.  35 


servants  to  doctors  in  Egypt ;  some  apothecaries'  assistants,  and  one 
confessed  to  me  that  he  had  been  a  watchmaker.  I  need  not  say 
how  the  unfortunate  Arabs  sank  under  their  treatment.  Never  was 
privileged  murder  carried  to  such  an  extent.  I  ceased  to  wonder 
that  the  faculty  were  twice  expelled  from  ancient  Rome.  The 
Egyptian  officers  refused  to  be  attended  by  their  own  medical  men, 
so  that  they  insisted  on  my  remaining  at  Suda  sometimes  for  a 
week  together  before  I  could  get  away  from  my  professional  work  at 
the  camp.  On  one  of  my  rides  from  Canea  to  the  camp,  being  sent 
for  to  see  one  of  the  Generals  (Courschad  Bey),  who  was  seized  with 
fever,  when  passing  through  a  wood  of  olives  1  was  twice  shot  at, 
and  one  of  the  bullets  grazed  my  ear.  I  had  so  little  ambition  for 
thus  serving  as  a  target  in  this  uncongenial  service  that  I  made  up 
my  mind  to  take  my  departure  for  Egypt  by  the  first  ship.  But, 
before  I  did  so,  I  was  witness  to  another  event  which  could  hardl}^ 
have  occurred  in  any  other  country.  A  few  days  previously  the  Turks 
towed  a  Greek  prize  into  the  port — a  large  brig  called  the  San 
Nicolo.  The  Turkish  captain  and  his  officers  made  merry  on  the 
occasion.  In  our  house,  which  overhung  the  entrance  to  the  harbour, 
we  heard  their  drunken  revelry  at  midnight.  Two  hours  later  we 
heard  a  tremendous  explosion  :  every  window  in  our  house  was 
shattered,  the  doors  of  my  apartment  were  forced  open,  and  the 
walls  shaken  to  their  foundation.  I  thought  it  the  shock  of  an 
earthquake  ;  but  the  screams  of  people  from  all  parts  of  the  harbour 
soon  explained  the  nature  of  the  accident.  The  Greek  prize  which 
was  brought  in  on  tlie  previous  morning  had  blown  up,  and  the 
Turkish  captain,  his  officers  and  crew,  in  the  midst  of  their  drunken 
orgies,  were  sent  to  eternity.  A  few  were  still  alive  in  the  water 
when  I  reached  the  shore.  I  entreated  some  of  the  spectators  to 
launch  a  boat,  but  the  nonchalance  with  which  they  did  so  em-aged 
me  beyond  measure.  At  last,  after  an  interval  of  nearly  an  hour, 
a  boat  put  off,  and  two  of  the  poor  wretches  were  rescued. 
Their  account  of  the  catastrophe  was  this  :  When  the  captain  and 
all  the  officers  were  very  drunk,  the  former  proposed  as  a  test 
of  his  people's  courage  that  they  should  go  into  the  powder-room 
and  smoke  their  pipes  on  the  powder-chest.  Three  of  them  per- 
formed this  feat,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  exploit  the  ship  exploded. 
So  much  for  the  character  of  Turkish  officers. 


86  MEMOIRS 


CHAPTEE    VII. 

KESIDENCE    IN    EGYPT    IN    1825-1827. 

About  the  end  of  May  1825,  I  reached  Alexandria  after  a  pleasant 
sail  of  eight  days  from  Candia.  It  happened  that  at  the  period  of  my 
arrival  an  outbreak  of  epidemic  Oriental  plague  had  just  commenced 
to  show  itself.  Every  Frank  was  in  quarantine,  the  hotels  were 
infected,  and  a  lodging  being  nowhere  to  be  found,  I  was  obliged  to 
return  to  my  ship.  The  captain  was  a  native  of  the  Bocco  di 
Cattaro,  an  excellent  man,  who  would  not  accept  a  farthing  for  my 
passage,  as  I  had  given  him  some  medical  advice  during  the  voyage, 
and  I  was  thus  again  forced  to  tax  his  hospitality  for  some  days. 
An  eminent  Enghsh  merchant,  Mr.  Casey,  had  then  the 
Idndness  to  break  through  his  quarantine  and  received  me  into 
his  house,  where  I  remained  for  a  considerable  time  until  I  could 
obtain  apartments. 

Meanwhile  the  plague  daily  increased  in  violence  ;  the  natives 
perished  in  large  numbers,  and  few  days  passed  without  the  death 
of  Europeans,  and  hence,  from  the  start  my  medical  services  were 
in  great  demand.  For  so  small  a  population  as  that  of  Alexandria 
the  mortality  was  considerable.  Every  house  was  shut  up,  the 
servants  were  not  suffered  to  go  out,  money  was  passed  through 
vinegar  before  it  was  touched,  letters  were  smoked,  people  thronged 
round  the  doctors  to  know  how  many  died  in  the  night ;  the  plague 
was  discussed  at  breakfast,  the  contagion  was  described  at  dinner, 
and  carbuncles  were  the  theme  at  supper  ;  in  fine,  a  house  in 
quarantine  then  became  a  lazar  domicile  for  the  anticipation 
of  death,  and  an  anatomy  of  melanchol3^  Already  I  had 
lost  one  servant :  I  took  him  with  me  two  days  before  his 
attack  to  a  Turkish  house  where  a  man  was  said  to  have 
apoplexy.  I  f(3und  on  examination  it  was  the  plague.  On  my 
return  I  changed  my  dress,  and  gave  the  clothes  to  my  Maltese  boy 
to  hang  up  on  the  terrace.  The  second  day  after  this  I  saw  the 
poor  fellow  had  the  plague,  and  as  my  hostess  would  not  permit  his 
being  kept  in  my  lodgings,  I  was  obliged  to  take  him  to  the  hospital. 
On  the  way  he  insisted  on  calling  on  his  brother,  and  left  some 
message  for  his  mother.  When  we  arrived  at  the  hospital  I  saw 
him  shudder,  as  well  he  might,  and  so  I  remained  by  his  side  until 
the  fatal  termination  of  the  disease  a  few  hours  later.  Three  days 
subsequently  his  brother,  on  whom  he  had  called  on  the  way  to  the 
pesthouse,  was  likewise  seized,  and  died,  as  indeed  most  of  those 
treated  by  the  routine  bleeding  practice  then  in  vogue  with  the 
Alexandrian  doctors.  I  now  tried  in  these  cases  an  opposite  course, 
jiamely,    the    administration  of   strong    stimulants   diffusible   and 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  37 


permanent — brandy  and  Cyprus  wine  in  frequent  but  small  doses, 
sponging  the  body  with  vinegar  and  water,  cold  applications  to  the 
head,  and  hot  cataplasms  to  the  buboes.  With  this  treatment,  at 
the  rate  of  seventy-five  per  cent,  recovered.  I  ascribe  my  es- 
cape from  the  disease,  under  Divine  Providence,  in  a  large 
measure  to  the  fact  that  I  always  insisted  on  the  windows  being 
opened  to  admit  fresh  air  into  the  wards,  as  well  as  to  wear- 
ing an  impervious  oilskin  garment,  and  never  entering  the  sick  room 
fasting  or  at  least  without  taking  a  glass  of  wine  previously,  and 
smoking  a  pipe  or  cigar  all  the  time  I  remained  in  the  crowded 
lazar-house.  These  precautions  I  would  strongly  recommend  to 
every  physician  under  similar  circumstances. 

Although  I  was  spared  from  the  widespread  epidemic 
which  then  decimated  Alexandria,  I  was  not  long  here  before 
I  came  near  to  succumbing  to  endemic  dysentery,  that  at 
certain  seasons  prevails  in  this  city,  for  which  I  was  treated  for 
some  time  by  a  native  physician,  until  from  the  effect  of  his 
treatment  I  began  to  believe  that  my  mortal  pilgrimage  was 
about  to  end  in  Alexandria.  I  then  gave  orders  to  admit 
the  doctor  no  more,  and  took  scruple  doses  of  calomel  for  three 
successive  days,  and  thencefortli  tlie  bad  symptoms  ceased.  I  could 
not  determine  what  the  rationale  of  the  previous  treatment  was,  but  I 
certainly  thought  it  not  unlikely  that  the  Alexandrian  faculty  wished 
me  elsewhere.  At  all  events,  in  this  country  they  get  rid  of  interlopers 
not  unfrequently.  During  this  illness,  and  indeed  during  my  resi- 
dence, I  received  great  kindness  and  attention  from  the  eight  or 
ten  leading  merchants  who  then  represented  English  commerce  in 
Alexandria,  and  to  them  as  well  as  to  my  good  friend,  Mr.  Salt,  I 
owe  more  gratitude  than  I  can  express.  Thus  supported  I  was  not 
long  in  acquiring  a  good  share  of  medical  practice,  which  continued 
to  increase  steadily  throughout  the  two  years  that  1  remained  in  this 
city.  I  now  proposed  to  Mr.  Salt  and  Mr.  Thornburn  to  attend 
plague  patients  exclusively  for  one  season  in  a  small  special  hospital. 
I  believed  that  there  would  be  a  fair  probability  of  thus  saving  from 
seventy  to  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  sick.  Our  Consul  promised  to 
apply  to  the  goverinnent,  but  the  negotiations  fell  through  probably 
from  the  fact  that  Mr.  Salt  was  very  partial  to  me,  and  considered 
that  I  was  engaging  in  a  fatal  measure.  I  was  therefore  obliged  to  be 
content  with  permission  to  carry  out  my  ideas  as  far  as  was 
practicable  in  the  plague  hospital,  which  I  visited  daily  during  the 
epidemic. 

iNTERVIEW    WITH    MEHEMET    ALL JOURNEY    TO    NUBIA. 

In  June  1826,  I  accompanied  Mr.  Salt  to  Cairo,  and  within  a  few 
days  was  introduced  by  him  as  liis  physician,  to  the  Viceroy, 
Mehemet  Ali,  who  gave  us   a  flattering  reception,  and  we  seated 


88  MEMOIRS 


ourselves  by  his  side.  The  presents  which  Mr.  Salt  was  charged 
to  present  on  behalf  of  the  Indian  Government  were  brought  in. 
These  were  extolled  by  all  the  Court.  Coffee  was  handed  round, 
and  after  a  long  conversation  our  audience  terminated.  The 
Pasha  appeared  a  hale,  good-looking  old  man,  with  nothing 
but  his  piercing  eyes  to  redeem  his  countenance  from  vulgarity. 
When  I  was  in  the  antechamber  I  had  all  the  officers  of  the 
Viceroy  gathered  round  telling  me  their  disorders,  and  only  got  away 
at  last  by  promising'  to  physic  the  whole  Court  gratis  next  morning. 

A  day  or  two  afterwards  I  made  the  customary  expedition  to  the 
pyramids,  visited  "Pharoon's  coffin,"  and  ascended  the  great  pyramid. 
Hence  I  gazed  with  a  delight  I  can  still  recall  on  the  wide  prospect 
that  was  outstretched,  from  the  base  of  the  pyramid  to  the  distant 
tombs  of  Saccara,  along  the  verdant  valley  of  the  Nile,  fertility 
everywhere  following  its  course.  Before  me  was  the  chain  of  the 
Mokattam,  at  its  foot  the  mosques  and  minarets  of  Cairo,  and  the 
sites  of  Bab3don  and  Heliopolis.  Behind  was  the  Libyan  Desert, 
dreary  and  desolate,  an  ocean  of  sand  agitated  by  burning  winds, 
and  traversed  only  by  the  descendants  of  him  whose  "  hand  v/as 
lifted  against  all  men,  and  every  man's  hand  against  him." 

[From  Cairo  Dr.  Madden  proceeded  up  to  Thebes,  and  thence 
along  the  Nile  on  to  Assouan,  the  last  town  in  Egypt.] 

We  arrived  at  Philoe  after  a  fatiguing  walk  from  Assouan  in  the 
heat  of  noon  day,  and  crossing  over  to  the  island,  took  up  our 
quarters  in  a  deserted  Nubian  hut  within  the  precincts  of  the  great 
Temple.  The  beauty  of  the  scenery  around  this  enchanting  isle 
compensated  us  for  all  our  toil  from  Alexandria  to  the  cataract.  It 
was  indeed  the  only  spot  in  the  journey  where  scenery  deserved  to 
be  called  sublime.  The  granite  rocks,  in  a  thousand  mystic  forms, 
rise  from  the  Nile  at  its  western  extremity,  and  are  beautifully  con- 
trasted w4th  the  picturesque  effects  of  the  palm-trees  and 
magnificent  structures  of  Philoe  ;  indeed  the  whole  island  seems  to 
be  a  delightful  garden  studded  with  obelisks  and  the  ruins  of  stately 
temples. 

Every  trace  of  Arab  civilization,  and  that  is  little  enough,  is  lost 
at  the  cataracts.  Neighbouring  villages  are  at  war,  and  towns  not 
twenty  miles  distant  have  been  in  hostility  for  ages.  This  accounts 
for  every  man  being  armed.  Every  man  must  have  his  shield  and 
spear  on  his  arm  if  he  has  only  to  cross  his  fields ;  and  a  man 
would  as  soon  think  of  going  into  his  neighbour's  house  without  his 
skull  cap  as  without  his  weapons.  Whilst  I  remained  at  Philoe  I 
w^as  continually  pestered,  and  more  especially  by  the  Nubian  women, 
wdth  entreaties  for  physic.  They  all  imagined  I  effected  cures  by 
supernatural  agency,  and  they  considered  a  waraga,  or  triangular 
scroll,  inscribed  with  some  outlandish  figures,  a  better  remedy  for  every 
complaint,  from  lovesickness  to  ophthalmia,  than  any  of  my  drugs. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  30 


*  * 


[Dr.  Madden  remained  for  some  months  in  Nubia  and  Upper 
Egypt,  which  at  that  time  was  seldom  visited  by  European  travel- 
lers. He  then  returned  to  Alexandria,  whence,"  after  a  brief  stay, 
he  once  more  departed  with  the  intention  of  visiting  the  Holy  Land' 
which  had  long  been  a  cherished  project.  Nor  was  his  curiosity 
satisfied  with  this  one  visit  to  Palestine,  as  years  subsequently  he 
again  visited  the  sacred  scenes  which  had  been  sanctified  by  the 
Redeemer's  presence  ;  and  even  in  his  extreme  old  age  he  delighted 
to  recall  the  recollections  of  these  visits,  and  was  wont  to  express  an 
earnest  wish  that  he  had  but  strength  remaining  to  permit  of  his 
making  a  final  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land.] 

*  *  *  *  * 

I  set  out  with  one  servant  from  Alexandria  across  the  desert  along 
the  seashore  to  Damietta,  and  in  five  days  we  accompliphed  the 
journey.  In  all  the  route  we  met  with  nothing  interesting  but  tlie 
remains  of  Canopus  on  the  beach  about  ten  miles  from  Alexandria, 
and  the  scene  of  the  memorable  battle  in  which  Abercrombie  felL 
Near  the  shore,  where  the  sea  had  undermined  the  soil,  I  perceived 
a  stratum  of  human  bones,  which  proved  to  be  those  of  the  soldiers 
that  fell  on  that  day.  By  one  skeleton  I  found  the  remnants  of  a 
coat  and  some  regimental  buttons,  which  were  all  that  remained 
after  thirty  years  to  tell  that  the  poor  victim  of  glory  was  an 
Enghsh  soldier.  In  two  hours  more  we  passed  the  Bay  of  Aboukir : 
it  was  smooth  and  tranquil.  A  spectator  could  hardly  have 
imagined  that  the  sound  of  war  had  ever  disturbed  the  stillness,  or 
that  the  wreck  of  many  a  stately  ship  was  covered  by  its  waters, 
and  that  the  remains  of  many  a  gallant  fellow  were  strewn  upon 
its  sands.  I  picked  up  a  cannon-shot  near  the  shore,  which  soon 
convinced  me,  if  I  doubted  for  a  moment,  that  the  stillness  of 
Aboukir  had  once  been  broken  by  the  fury  of  Christian  armies,    • 


VISIT    TO    SYRIA. 

I  CAME  to  Damietta  with  the  purpose  of  remaining  two  or  three 
days,  and  remained  there  for  three  months  in  the  house  of  Vice- 
Consul  Surur,  a  native  of  Syria,  and  a  man  of  considerable  erudi- 
tion in  Arabic  literature.  The  cause  of  my  detention  was  my  repute 
as  a  hakkim  amongst  the  Levantine  merchants,  who  form  at 
Damietta  a  very  numerous  and  respectable  body.  The  fame  of  an 
amputation  of  the  shoulder  which  I  had  performed  on  one  of  them 
in  Alexandria  had  sj^read  here,  so  that  on  my  arrival  I  was  hailed 
as  a  second  Hippocrates.  In  no  other  place  \\  as  I  ever  treated  with 
so  much  respect,  or  received  so  many  marks  of  gratitude.  One  lady 


40 


ME  MO  IE  3 


presented  me  with  a  splendid  silk  robe  of  her  own  embroidery, 
another  with  a  costly  Cashmere  shawl,  another  with  several  pieces 
of  rare  Damascus  silk  ;  and  one  merchant  insisted  on  my  accept- 
ance of  a  whole  bale  of  tobacco.  Amongst  my  other  patients  was 
the  Turkish  Governor,  with  whom  the  Vice-Consul  alone  could  vie 
in  the  splendour  of  his  entertainments  and  profuseness  of  his  hospi- 
tality. At  the  latter's  house  a  party  of  seventy  Turks  sat  down  a ' 
few  evenings  ago  to  the  most  magnificent  banquet  I  ever  witnessed 
even  in  the  East.  The  sokliers  and  servants  of  the  guests  had  also 
to  be  entertained  in  another  apartment,  and  of  these  there  were  no 
less  than  one  hundred,  each  of  whom  had,  moreover,  to  receive  a 
small  present  for  the  trouble  of  gourmandizing  at  Surur's  expense. 
After  dinner  a  band  of  Arab  musicians  and  singers  performed,  and 
were  followed  by  jesters  and  buffoons  who  played  all  sorts  of  ridicu- 
lous tricks.  During  this  entertainment  I  had  a  good  specimen  of 
Turkish  insolence  and  pusillanimity.  A  Turkish  officer  standing 
near  me  when  we  were  crowding  round  the  jesters  took  occasion  to 
pull  off  my  turban  without  being  perceived.  I  replaced  it  thinking 
it  had  not  been  properly  secured.  A  second  time  it  was  pulled  off 
in  the  same  way,  but  on  the  repetition  of  the  joke  a  third  time  I 
managed  to  secure  the  fellow's  hand,  which  he  endeavoured  to  release, 
whilst  with  the  other  he  attempted  to  draw  his  pistol,  but  ere  he 
could  do  so  I  persuaded  him  to  measure  his  length  on  the  floor  with 
a  concussion  which  shook  the  room.  There  was  a  general  uproar  ; 
but  the  older  Turkish  officers,  instead  of  resenting  the  blow  inflicted 
on  their  fallen  comrade,  slunk  away  from  him,  and  the  fellow  him- 
self, as  soon  as  he  was  raised  up,  took  hold  of  my  hand  in  the  most 
abject  way,  entreating  me  to  overlook  what  had  passed  and  make 
no  complaint  of  him  to  the  Governor.  If  I  had  passed  over  this 
insult  with  impunity,  its  repetition  would  have  been  certain,  but  for 
having  resented  it  he  ever  after  respected  me,  and  would  go  out  of 
his  way  to  salaam  to  the  ground  before  me  on  every  possible  occasion 
as  long  as  I  remained  in  Damietta.  In  short,  the  aryumejitum  ad 
hominem  is  the  only  logic  a  Turk  can  be  convinced  by. 

I  took  my  departure  from  Damietta  in  June  1827,  and,  bidding 
adieu  with  regret  to  the  Consul  and  the  many  friends  from  whom  I 
had  experienced  such  courtesy  and  kindness  during  my  stay  there, 
I  embarked  in  a  small  boat  on  Lake  Menzale  for  San.  Here  I 
started  on  camel-back  two  days  afterwards,  with  a  couple  of  Bedouin 
guides,  to  ride  across  the  desert  through  the  land  of  Goshen  to  Suez. 
Every  trace  of  vegetation  soon  disappeared,  and  nothing  but  sky 
and  sand  was  to  be  seen.  From  twelve  till  two  o'clock  we  reposed 
under  the  umbrella  which  formed  my  tent.  We  then  started  again, 
and  in  the  evening  came  to  a  Wady.  Here,  our  camels  being  tied 
to  one  of  the  date  trees  overhanging  the  well,  a  large  fire  was 
kindled,  in  the  red  ashes  of  which  our  roughly-kneaded  cake  bread 


DR.    R.    R     MADDEN.  41 


was  hurriedly  baked,  and  this,  with  a  few  onions  and  a  cup  of 
coffee,  we  supped  luxuriantly,  and  wrapping  our  weary  heads  under 
our  blankets  so  as  to  keep  off  the  heavy  dewfall,  in  a  few  moments 
we  enjoyed  a  sleep  which  many  a  head  resting  on  an  eider  pillow 
might  have  envied. 

Three  such  days'  and  nights'  journey  brought  us  to  Suez.  From 
Suez  I  returned  to  Damietta,  falling  in  with  a  horde  of  Bedouin 
robbers  near  Adjeronde,  by  whom  I  was  taken  for  a  Turkish  Halge, 
and  so  escaped  without  any  violence,  merely  having  to  endure  the 
loss  of  a  portion  of  my  small  impedhnenta.  From  Damietta  I  em- 
barked for  Beirout,  or  Sour,  the  ancient  Tyre,  and  arrived  there 
after  five  days'  sail. 

[Whilst  in  Syria,  Dr.  Madden  employed  himself  in  visiting  the 
turbulent  district  of  ]\lount  Lebanon,  where  the  Emir  Bechir  then 
ruled  the  contending  Druse  and  Christian  tribes.  By  the  Emir  he 
was  courteously  received.  In  Sidon  he  received  an  invitation  to 
visit  the  celebrated  Lady  Hester  Stanhope,  who  then  resided 
about  eight  miles  from  Sidon,  in  a  villa  of  her  own  construction 
called  DToun.  This  solitary  house  was  shut  out  from  the  world 
and  hemmed  in  on  all  sides  by  arid  mountains,  no  village  near  it,. 
and  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  Bedouins,  did  they  choose  to  attack 
it.  Here  Dr.  Madden  remained  for  several  days,  and  as  he 
continues]  : — 

I  took  my  leave  of  her  ladyship  highly  gratified  with  the  society 
of  a  person  whose  originality,  or  eccentricity,  if  it  deserves  that 
name,  is  a  far  less  prominent  feature  in  her  character  than  her  ex- 
tensive information,  her  intrepidity  of  spirit,  her  courteous  manners, 
and  her  unbounded  benevolence. 


CHAPTER    VIIL 

JOURNEY    THROUGH    PALESTINE,    &G. 

After  a  third  visit  to  Tyre  I  started  for  Nazareth,  a  journey  of  two 
days  and  a  half.  For  the  first  twenty  miles  our  route  lay  across  the 
summit  of  a  lofty  chain  of  Lebanon,  which  in  some  places  overhangs 
the  sea.  On  the  third  morning  we  entered  JNazareth.  The  capital  of 
Gallilee  is  now  a  little  village  containing  two  thousand  inhabitants, 
chiefly  Christians.  It  is  delightfully  situated  on  a  gentle  acclivity, 
hemmed  in  on  all  sides  by  mountains,  enclosing  a  valley  of  almost 
two  miles  and  a  half  in  length,  which  directly  faces  the  village. 


42  MEMOIES 


The  Latin  Convent  of  the  Annunciation,  which  was  rebuilt  in  1730, 
on  the  site  of  an  old  church,  occupies  the  spot  indicated  by  tradition 
as  the  habitation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary.  In  a  cave  beneath 
the  church  the  monks  point  out  the  dwelUng  of  the  Blessed  Virgin, 
and  in  the  church  there  is  shown  a  picture  of  our  Saviour  painted 
from  a  traditionar}^  description  of  Publius  Lentulus  to  the  Koman 
Senate.  In  another  chapel  a  rock  is  exhibited  on  which  it  is  said 
the  Redeemer  ate  with  His  disciples.  A  couple  of  miles  from  the 
town  the  precipice  is  pointed  out  down  which  the  people  of  Nazareth 
sought  to  throw  our  Lord. 

The  peaceful  valley  of  Nazareth,  secluded  from  the  noisy  world 
by  an  amphitheatre  of  verdant  hills,  is  the  spot  which  one  might 
imagine  th  emeekajid  lowly  Jesus  would  have  chosen  for  His  earliest 
abode.  The  silent  paths,  the  deep  ravine  in  the  eastern  hill  might 
well  have  served  for  meditation.  Every  morning  during  my  stay  in 
Nazareth  I  visited  these  solitudes,  calling  to  my  mind  the  wondrous 
revolution  in  religion,  morality  and  philosophy,  which  every  country 
had  undergone  since"  Jesus  of  Nazareth  "  first  broached  His  divine 
doctrines  in  the  village  synagogi  e,  the  site  of  which  was  then  before 
me.  The  feelings  thus  inspired  were  intense  ;  and,  seated  on  a 
cliff  which  commanded  a  view  of  the  village  and  the  valley,  I  gave 
them  vent  in  the  following  feeble  verses  : — 


Jesns  of  Nazareth  !     Oh,  blessed  name  ! 

The  sound  and  scene  in  sweetest  concert  join  ! 
What  holy  rapture  in  this  glorious  theme! 

And  peaceful  beauty  here  in  each  still  line. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  !  Incarnate  God  ! 

The  Lord  of  nature,  here  revealed  to  man  ! 
Hath  this  poor  hamlet  then  been  Thy  abode? 

This  humble  spot,  where  Wisdom's  dawn  began  ! 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  !  the  scene  around 

Of  mercy  speaks, — here  was  the  chosen  shrine; 

Earth's  purest  temple,  for  Thy  advent  found, 
Here  Mary's  bosom  thrilled  with  love  divine. 


Jesus  of  Nazareth  1     Eternal  Lord 
Of  uncreated  wisdom  from  above, 

In  mercy's  image  shown  to  mortal  sight, 
A  man  of  sorrows  and  a  God  of  love. 


Jesus  of  Nazareth  !  in  childhood's  dawn, 
A  blissful  emblem  of  Thy  spotless  years, 

The  same  sweet  features  truth  divine  has  drawn. 
In  youth  and  manhood  still  redemption  bears. 


DK.    R,    R.    MADDEN,  43 


Jesus  of  Nazareth !  this  peaceful  vale, 
This  silent  spot  is  holy  ground  to  me, 

The  pilgrim  lingers  where  the  home  has  been, 
Of  Mary's  hopes  and  all  her  joys  in  Thee. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  !  on  high  all  hail  ! 

Jesus  of  Nazcireth  !  on  earth  all  praise  ! 
Weak  though  my  voice,  let  mercy  still  prevail : 

Hear  me,  Bsdeemer,  and  direct  my  waj-s. 

If  ever  folly  urged  my  tongue  in  Vciin 

To  take  Thy  sacred  nam^e,  TJiy  wrath  forego  ; 

If  ever  madness  wo^^ked  upon  my  brain 
To  doubt  Thy  holy  word,  Thy'pity  show. 

Here,  gracious  Lord,  where  Thou  didst  humbly  wear 
The  garb  of  poor  humanity,  and  pass'd 

The  dawn  of  mortal  life,  vouchsafe  to  hear 
The  voice  whose  homage  turns  to  Thee  at  last. 


I  set  out  from  Nazareth  to  visit  the  Jordan,  a  johrney  of  twelve 
hours  across  a  wild  country,  accompanied  by  a  single  servant,  and 
so  attired  as  to  avoid  exciting  the  cupidity  of  the  Bedouins.  About 
seven  miles  from  Nazareth  we  halted  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Tabor. 
The  heat  was  insupportable,  the  thermometer  in  the  shade  standing 
at  one  hundred  and  two  degrees.  Mount  Tabor  is  a  small  isolated 
mountain,  of  a  conical  form,  commanding  a  splendid  view  of  the 
plain  of  Esdra?lon,  which  extends  about  twenty  miles  in  length.  In 
the  Scriptures  this  magnificent  plain  is  sometimes  called  the  valley 
of  Jezreel.  It  was  here  "  the  Lord  discomfited  Sisera,  and  all  his 
chariots,  and  all  his  host  with  the  edge  of  the  sword,  before  Barak  ;  " 
and,  in  latter  times,  it  was  here  that  Kleber,  with  one  thousand  live 
hundred  men  sustained  the  attack  of  twenty-five  thousand  Syrians, 
and  where  Napoleon,  with  a  reinforcement  of  six  hundred  men, 
routed  the  whole  Syrian  army. 

The  next  place  worthy  of  note  where  we  stopped  was  "  Cana  of 
GaHlee,"  where  the  miracle  of  changing  the  water  into  wine  was 
performed  at  the  marriage  feast.  There  is  a  small  chapel  here  in 
which  they  show  a  large  stone  vase,  which  they  assured  me  was 
the  identical  one  in  which  the  miraculous  change  took  place.  I 
again  passed  the  tombs  in  the  mountain,  which  are  supposed 
to  be  those  out  of  which  came  the  miserable  objects  who  accosted 
our  Saviour  as  he  passed  :  "  And  when  He  was  come  out  of  the 
ship,  immediately  there  met  Him,  out  of  the  tombs,  a  man  with  an 
unclean  spirit."  The  route  from  Tiberias  to  Jerusalem,  by  Samaria, 
was  beset  with  so  much  peril  that  I  was  obliged  to  cross  the  country 
to  Jaffa.  The  journey  occupied  three  days,  and  in  tliat  short  space 
of  time  I  was  five  times  in  the  hands  of  robbers.     The  three  lirst 


44  MEMOIRS 


encounters  I  bad  not  much  to  complain  of,  being  able  eacb  time  to 
effect  a  composition  of  from  twenty  to  sixty  piastres.  This  they 
regard  as  but  a  lawful  toll  or  guffer.  But  the  fourth  attack  was 
more  formidable.  When  attacked,  we  were  skirting  along  the  foot 
of  a  barren  mountain  between  Nazareth  and  Aci^e,  about  an  hour's 
ride  from  the  plain  of  Zebulon.  I  was  the  first  to  perceive  half  a 
dozen  heads  rising  from  behind  a  rock  immediately  above  us  ;  and 
shortly  after  eight  Bedouins  rushed  down  the  mountain  to  intercept 
us.  My  servant  endeavoured  to  urge  on  his  mule,  but  was  unsuc- 
cessful. I  was  more  fortunate  ;  and,  although  I  had  a  couple  of 
shots  fired  after  me,  I  got  out  of  their  reach  in  a  very  few  minutes. 
When  I  drew  up,  I  discerned  the  robbers  taking  my  baggage  off  the 
mule,  and  saw  everything  I  possessed  spread  on  the  ground  ready 
for  distribution.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  return,  galloped  back  to 
the  great  surprise  of  all,  and  commenced  salaaming  my  plunderers  : 
one  fellow  seized  hold  of  my  bridle,  and  ordered  me  to  dismount ! 
I  pushed  him  from  the  horse's  head,  and  addressed  myself  to  him 
who  seemed  to  be  the  chief:  "  I  have  come  here,"  I  said,  *'  not  as 
a  jorisoner  ;  of  ray  own  accord  I  now  throw  myself  amongst  you  : 
and  he  who  lifts  his  hand  against  the  guest  who  seeks  him,  is  no 
Arab— he  is  a  Turk  and  a  Caffre  !  "  This  speech  had  a  prodigious 
effect.  I  sat  down  on  the  ground,  and  lit  my  ]Dipe  with  a  small 
lens,  which  mode  of  extracting  fire  from  the  rays  of  the  sun  they 
could  not  at  all  understand. 

I  never  beheld  more  ferocious  looking  features  than  those  which 
were  .around  me  ;  and  while  I  spoke  I  expected  to  get  knocked  on 
the  head  every  moment,  but  I  perceived  there  was  a  disposition  to 
relent,  so  I  pulled  out  a  packet  of  James'  powders,  which  I  carried 
in  my  turban,  and  dividing  the  packet  into  eight  parts,  I  gave  one 
to  each,  with  an  injunction  to  reserve  it  for  the  hour  of  sickness, 
and  to  think  of  the  hakkim  who  lit  his  pipe  with  the  celestial  fire. 
I  left  no  time  for  answering,  but  threw  a  couple  of  pounds  of  coffee 
and  as  much  tobacco  amongst  them.  Then  I  commenced  to  replace  my 
luggage  on  the  mule,  but  whilst  doing  so  I  observed  one  fellow  secret- 
ing my  carpet,  another  my  coffee-pot.  I  affected  not  to  perceive  the 
theft ;  I  hurried  off  my  servant,  and  salaamed  them  till  I  got  clear. 

The  approach  to  Jerusalem  on  my  entrance  from  Jaffa  afforded 
a  prospect  which  well  repaid  all  the  perils  and  fatigues  of  mjgourney. 
I  had  passed  on  my  way  from  Ramah  through  a  scene  of  sterility 
hardly  to  be  equalled,  when  all  at  once  a  noble  city  rose  on  my  view, 
with  stately  walls  and  lofty  towers,  and  studded  with  glittering 
domes  of  monasteries  and  mosques.  It  was  indeed  a  glorious  sight, 
and  the  very  Arab  who  accompanied  me  greeted  the  Holy  City 
with  all  the  fervour  of  admiration — "  Quies  el  cods  wallah,  quies 
kitir  !  "  he  exclaimed.   "  How  beautiful,  O  God,  is  the  Holy  City  !  " 


DR.    E.    R.    MADDEN.  45 


Every  pilgrim,  let  his  enthusiasm  be  ever  so  different  from  that 
of  those  who  profess  to  visit  Jerusalem  from  the  suggestions  of 
pietj,  must  own  there  is  an  atmosphere  of  melancholy  magnificence 
around  the  structures  of  Jerusalem,  and  a  death-like  stillness  in  the 
streets,  which  he  never  before  observed  in  the  abodes  of  the  living, 
and  which  give  an  air  of  sanctity  to  the  site  of  the  Temple,  the 
place  which  enshrines  the  Sepulchre  of  Christ. 

Few  travellers,  except  such  as  \dsit  Palestine  to  rail  against 
monastic  institutions,  who  see  nothing  but  the  horrors  of  papacy 
in  the  sanctuaries  of  Jerusalem ;  few  travellers,  I  say,  except  such 
at  these,  can  visit  the  spot  which  is  connected  with  the  history  of 
their  religion  without  experiencing  sentiments  somewhat  such  as 
those  I  have  endeavoured  to  convey  in  the  following  lines,  which, 
however  unworthy  of  their  sacred  subject,  as  least  faintly  reflect  the 
feeli]igs  with  which  my  visit  to  the  Holy  City  impressed  me : — 


Daughter  of  Zion  !  doomed  from  age  to  age 
To  prove  the  truth  of  God's  unerring  page  ; 
Thy  sullied  beauty,  thy  dejected  mien, 
Thy  desolation  still  o'ercast  the  scene ; 
Thy  mournful  silence  sinks  into  the  heart, 
Astounds  the  sense,  and  mocks  description's  art. 
A  weary  pilgrim,  here  with  steps  profane 
I  tread  thy  paths,  participate  thy  pain, 
Recall  the  sad  remembrance  of  thy  fall, 
And  in  the  terrors  of  thy  present  thrall 
Behold  the  judgments  of  a  hand  Supreme, 
And  trace  the  sources  of  redemption's  scheme. 


"Mournful,  0  Zion  !  are  thy  ways  "  indeed, 
"  They  come  not  to  thy  feasts,"  the  chosen  seed 
O'er  all  the  land  of  Israel  hath  ceased. 
And  foes  and  infidels  alone  increased. 
The  scattered  remnant  of  thy  race  doth  roam 
O'er  earth,  without  a  country  or  a  home; — 
"  A  by- word,"  an  astonishment  to  men; 
Reviled,  degraded,  and  in  bonds  again. 

•  *  *  *  ♦ 

O'erthrown  thy  altars,  what !  alone  to  yield 
The  Talmud's  promise,  for  the  sinner's  shield ! 
Is  this  the  compensation  for  thy  fall, 
And  not  the  blood  the  Saviour  shed  for  all  ? 
Father  of  Mercy  graciously  ordain 
That  great  atonement  be  not  made  in  vain  ; 
Let  Jew  and  Geutile  bow  with  one  accord 
Before  the  altar  of  their  common  Lord  I 
Direct  the  weak,  the  wicked  overawe. 
Enlighten  all,  and  vindicate  Thy  law ! 
Thy  promised  Kingdom  spread  from  pole  to  pole, 
And  make  Thy  chosen  people  of  the  whole. 


46  MEMOIRS 


The  Latin  Convent  was  the  best  reputed  of  all,  for  the  character 
of  its  inmates  and  the  reputation  of  its  cheer  :  I  had  every  reason 
to  be  pleased  with  both.  I  found  the  monks  extremely  courteous, 
and  most  of  them  men  of  unaffected  piety.  It  is,  however,  lament- 
able to  observe  the  dissensions  which  exist  in  this  city  between  the 
various  sects  of  Christians  ;  the  Turk,  the  common  enemy  of  each, 
profits  by  their  feuds,  and  literally  enriches  himself  on  the  rancour 
of  conflicting  creeds. 

There  was  lately  a  notable  instance  of  Christian  animosity  and 
of  Turkish  interference  within  the  walls  of  the  Church  of  the 
Sepulchre,  in  which  it  was  my  fortune  to  assist  in  the  adj  ustment 
of  the  quarrel.  It  is  necessary  to  premise  that  the  Church  of  the 
"  Santa  Sepulchra,"  built  by  Constantino,  was  burned  down  by  the 
Armenians  in  1808,  and  on  being  rebuilt,  the  larger  portion  was 
divided  equally  between  the  Catholics  and  Greeks,  and  smaller 
portions  of  the  same  sacred  edifice  sub-divided  between  the  Syrians, 
Copts,  and  Armenians.  The  latter  of  these  had  recently  taken  posses- 
sion of  the  altar  on  Mount  Calvary,  which  belonged  to  the  Catholics, 
and  which  stands  within  the  walls  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre, and,  finally,  the  intervention  of  the  Turkish  Governor  was  re- 
sorted to  for  decision  on  the  validity  of  the  title  of  the  contending 
claimants.  At  this  juncture  I  was  attending  the  Governor,  who 
laboured  under  inflammation  of  the  liver,  brought  onj  I  had  reason  to 
believe,  from  the  immoderate  use  of  ardent  spirits.  He  had  recently 
arrived  from  Damascus,  and  was  in  much  need  of  money.  I  endea- 
voured to  ascertain  from  him  in  whose  favour  he  intended  to  decide, 
and  which  party  had  given  in  the  most  substantial  arguments.  I 
found  the  scale  of  "justice  "weighed  in  favour  of  the  Armenians,  and 
that  they  had  given  eight  thousand  piastres,  while  the  Cathohcs  had 
only  offered  six,  This  important  information  I  lost  no  time  in  con- 
veying to  one  of  the  Fathers,  who  waited  on  me  in  the  Convent,  and 
the  result  was  that  three  thousand  additional  arguments  were 
adduced  in  favour  of  the  ancient  title  to  Mount  Calvary,  and  the 
Catholics  continue  the  exclusive  possessors  of  the  altar  in  question. 

I  had  the  happiness  of  visiting  carefully  all  the  objects  and 
places  hallowed  to  the  veneration  of  every  Christian  pilgrim  in  this 
sacred  shrine  of  Redemption,  namely :  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  the  Pillar, 
the  ascent  to  Calvary,  the  site  of  the  Cross,  &c. ;  and  having  made 
an  excursion  of  some  difficulty  to  the  Dead  Sea,  from  which  I 
returned  by  Bethlehem,  where  the  cave  of  the  Nativity  is  cut  out 
of  the  solid  rock  beneath  the  Church,  and  where  the  birthplace  of 
the  Saviour  is  marked  by  a  star  with  a  silver  lamp  always  burning 
in  the  place  of  the  manger,  I  made  my  way  back  to  Jerusalem. 

Here  I  found  awaiting  me  letters  from  my  friends  in  Egypt,  warn- 


ing me  of  the  danger  of  remaining  in  Syria,  as  war  was  imminent 
between  the  Porte   and  the  aUies,  so  that  I  no  sooner  recovered 


DE.    H.    E.    MADDEN.  47 


partially  from  the  effects  of  my  last  journey  than  I  bade  adieu  for 
the  last  time  to  the  Holy  City.  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  arrive 
in  Jaffa  without  any  impediment ;  but  on  my  arrival,  the  vessel  I 
expected  to  embark  in  for  Damietta  I  found  had  sailed  the  day 
before.  That  night  I  set  out  for  Tyre,  where  I  embarked  on  board 
an  English  brig  bound  for  Damietta,  congratulating  myself  on  my 
escape  from  many  perils,  w^hich  I  fondly  hoped  w^ere  at  an  end,  but 
the  evening  of  our  departure  we  observed  a  suspicious-looking 
vessel  hovering  about  us  for  some  hours.  She  stood  in  for  Sour  at 
nightfall,  and  we  saw  nothing  of  her  until  the  following  morning. 
She  did  not  then  long  keep  us  in  suspense — her  boats  were  soon  out, 
and  in  the  course  of  a  quarter  of  an  hour  we  were  the  lawful  prize 
of  a  Greek  pirate.  A  strong  rope  was  fastened  to  our  bows,  and  we 
were  towed  in  the  wake  of  the  Greek  brig,  which  mounted  eighteen 
guns,  and  was  manned  by  seventy  men,  commanded  by  Captain 
Spiro  Calfetto,  probably  as  great  a  scoundrel  as  any  in  existence. 
***** 

[Of  the  incidents  of  this  untoward  voyage,  of  the  scenes  of 
piracy  and  of  violence  of  w^hich  he  was  consequently  a  helpless 
spectator,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  his  escape  and  that  of  his 
fellow^  captives  was  ultimately  effected,  a  graphic  description  may 
be  found  in  the  second  volume  of  Dr.  Madden's  "  Travels  in  Turkey 
and  Palestine,"  pubhshed  by  Colburn  in  1829.] 

At  long  last,  however,  we  reached  Damietta  ;  my  friend,  Mr. 
MuUer,  having  borne  all  the  unpropitious  occurrences  of  our  voyage 
with  heroic  fortitude,  and  after  seven  days'  comparatively  delightful 
travelling  from  Damietta,  we  arrived  in  Alexandria.  Here  I  found 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Montefiore  on  the  point  of  setting  out  for  Palestine. 
It  required  more  than  ordinary  courage  to  undertake  this  journey 
at  such  a  moment,  when  the  recent  news  of  the  battle  of  Navarino 
had  spread  consternation  and  had  irritated  the  people  of  the  country 
against  every  Franlc.  They  had  the  good  fortune  to  accomplish 
their  journey  to  the  holy  city  with  perfect  safety,  and  Mrs.  Monte- 
fiore was  one  of  the  few^  Frank  ladies  who  had  then  traversed  the  rugged 
mountains  of  Juda3a.  It  was  settled  that  I  should  await  their 
return,  to  accompany  them  to  Europe ;  and  in  the  meantime  I  was 
called  on  to  attend  Mr.  Salt  (whom  I  was  grieved  to  find  in  a 
wretched  state  of  health)  on  an  excursion  up  the  Nile.  At  Dessuke, 
on  the  Nile,  he  became  so  feeble  that  it  was  impossible  to  proceed 
further ;  and  here,  after  a  fortnight's  suffering,  he  breathed  his  last. 

I  had  but  one  consolation,  and  that  w^as  that,  being  possessed  of 
his  entire  confidence,  I  was  enabled  to  soothe  his  last  moments  with 
all  the  attention  that  friendship  might  demand  in  a  country  where 
virtue  can  hardly  command  respect,  and  where  sickness  calls  forth 
little  sympathy.  No  one  unacquainted  with  Egypt  can  form  an 
adequate  idea  of  the  lo8s  of  Mr.  Salt  at  such  a  moment. 


4^  MEMOIRS 


DEPARTURE    FROM    EGYPT. SECOND    VISIT    TO    ROME. 

[In  Alexandria,  Dr.  Madden  was  rejoined  by  his  friends  Mr.  (after- 
wards Sir  Moses  and  Lady  Montefiore)  on  their  return  from  Palestine. 
On  the  7th  of  November  1^27  they  took  their  departure  in  Mr. 
Montefi ore's  yacht  the  "  Leonides,"  for  Malta,  where  they  arrived 
on  the  27th  of  that  month.  From  Malta  he  crossed  over  to  Naples, 
and  after  a  short  stay  proceeded  to  Rome,  where  he  was  received 
with  much  kindness  by  Lord  and  Lady  Blessington.] 

Li  the  month  of  March  1828,  on  my  return  from  the  East,  I 
visited  the  Blessingtons  at  the  Palazzo  Negroni,  and  there  for  the 
first  time  I  met  the  newly-married  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Blessing- 
ton — Lady  Harriet  D'Orsay.  Had  I  been  a  member  of  their  family 
I  could  not  have  been  received  with  greater  kindness  and  warmth 
of  feeling.  During  my  stay  in  Rome  I  dined  with  them  most  days, 
and  passed  every  evening  at  their  conversaziones.  Their  salons,  as 
at  Naples,  were  regularly  filled  with  the  elite  of  all  the  distinguished 
foreigners  and  natives,  artists  and  Zife?'a?i  in  the  Eternal  City.  Their 
apartments  were  amongst  the  most  magnificent  in  Rome,  and  well 
might  be  so,  as  they  had  engaged  the  two  principal  floors  of  the 
Palazzo  Negroni  for  six  months  at  the  rent  of  one  hundred  guineas 
a  month.  This  abode,  although  nominally  furnished,  had  to  be 
further  provided  with  hired  meubles,  the  cost  of  which  was  about 
twenty  pounds  a  month.  The  seeds  of  the  Irish  Encumbered 
Estates  were  thus  being  sown  in  Italy  as  well  as  in  other  continental 
countries  jDretty  extensively  some  thirty  years  ago  by  our  Irish 
landed  proprietors. 

I  remained  for  a  few  weeks  in  the  Eternal  City,  but  ere 
retracing  my  journey  hence  home,  I  may  briefly  re^er  to  an 
event  of  which  I  had  been  an  eye  witness  on  my  previous  visit. 
I  entered  Rome  for  the  second  time  a  few  weeks  after  the  death 
of  the  good  Pope  Pius  VII.,  and  at  the  time  of  the  election 
of  his  successor.  As  usual  on  such  occasions,  the  Cardinals 
were  secluded  in  the  Palace  of  the  Quirinal,  the  doors  and  windows 
of  which  were  barricaded  during  the  whole  fortnight  of  this  election. 
A  Swiss  stationed  at  every  door  of  the  Palace  prevented  ingress 
or  egress.  Pasquin's  statue  was  as  usual  covered  with  lampoons. 
At  sunset  the  multitude  flocked  to  Monte  CavaUo  to  ascertain  the 
progress  of  the  election.  The  smoke  which  mounted  from  the 
chimney  of  the  Conclave  Chamber  announced  the  continuance  of 
the  election,  the  register  of  the  votes  being  burned  every  evening 
when  the  electors  retired  to  their  apartnients  without  agreeing  in 
their  choice.  At  length  the  smoke  ceased  to  issue  at  the  customary 
hour ;  the  Cardinals  were  unanimous,  and  a  Pope  was  chosen.  The 


DS.     R.     R.     MAX>DEN.'  40 


next  act  was  the  maguiticeut  ceremonial  of  the  Coronation,  which 
has  been  too  frequently  described  to  nee  1  any  observation  in  these 
notes. 

A  few  days  before  I  quieted  Ro.ne  for  England  I  received  a  kind 
letter  from  Lord  Blessington  to  his  friend  John  Gait,  which  I  never 
had  an  opportunity  of  delivering — 

"  Rome,  March  0th,  1828. 

"  My  dear  Gait, — The  bearer  of  this  letter,  my  friend  Dr. 
Madden,  is  a  gentleman  of  hterary  acquirements  and  talent.  He 
has  lately  returned  from  the  East ;  and  besides  an  account  of 
deserts  and  Arabs,  Turks  and  Greeks,  he  will  be  able  to  give  you 
an  account  of  your  old  friends  at  Rome. 

"  Yours  very  sincerely, 

"  Blessington." 

From  Rome  I  returned  by  Switzerland,  and  on  my  way  to 
Geneva  paid  a  hurried  visit  to  the  tomb  of  a  great  actor,  of  whose 
performances  I  had  often  when  a  boy  been  a  dehghted  spectator  in 
the  old  Crow-street  Theatre,  Dublin.  I  arrived  at  Lausanne  near 
midnight,  and  as  the  diligence  was  to  start  at  an  early  hour  next 

morning,    my    fellow-traveller,  Mr.   M ,  a  young  native  of 

Aberdeen,  and  myself  determined  to  take  the  opportunity,  late 
as  was  the  hour,  of  visiting  the  spot  where  the  remains  of  John 
Philip  Kemble  were  interred.  To  do  this  we  climbed  over  the 
churchyard  wall.  The  night  was  fine,  and  the  moonlight  so 
brilliant  as  to  enable  us  to  read  the  inscriptions  on  the  tombstones. 
The  sombre  aspect  of  Mont  Blanc  full  in  view  of  the  cemetery, 
and  the  stillness  of  the  placid  waters  on  which  its  great  shadow 
was  visible,  were  in  keeping  with  our  feelings,  the  place  of  our 
pilgrimage,  and  the  shrine  we  had  been  in  search  of,  which  we 
at  length  discovered.  There  we  stood  for  some  time  in  silence 
over  the  grave  of  the  greatest  tragedian  of  his  day. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

RExMINlSCENCES     OF    EARLY    CONTINENTAL    FiUENDS    AND    CELEBRITIES. 

I  MAY  here  interrupt  the  course  of  my  narrative  to  record  a  few 
reminiscences  of  some  of  my  early  friends,  including  several  no- 
tabilities of  the  first  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  with  whom 
my  former  residence  in  Italy  had  brought  me  into  contact,  and  with 


50  MEMOIRS 


whom  I  took  occasion  on  my  return  from  the  East  to  Naj^les  and 
Rome  to  renew  my  acquaintance.  Foremost  amongst  these  on 
personal  grounds  must  be  mentioned  my  old  and  constant  friend, 
Dr.  Reilly.  Of  all  the  medical  men  at  the  forestiere  in  Naj^les  in 
my  time,  Charles  KeiUy,  a  native  of  Ireland,  and  a  retired  naval 
surgeon,  who  had  accompanied  the  Oxford  family  to  Naples  in  the 
capacity  of  travelling  medical  attendant,  and  had  settled  down  in 
practice  in  that  city  in  the  time  of  King  Joachim,  was  in  the  highest 
repute  when  I  was  there,  in  the  latter  part  of  1821-2-3,  and  the  spring 
of  1824.  Dr.  Reilly  was,  in  every  sense  of  the  term  but  one,  a  thorough 
Irishman.  He  was  full  of  humour,  jocose,  good-natured,  and  as 
"  racy  of  the  soil  "  he  had  abandoned,  some  twenty  or  thu't}^  years 
previously,  to  the  period  I  refer  to,  as  if  he  had  only  quitted  it  the 
day  before. 

By  his  practice,  Dr.  ReiUy  realized  a  large  fortune.  He  married 
in  Naples  an  English  lady,  also  in  affluent  circumstances,  by  whom 
he  had  one  son  and  a  daughter,  a  highly  accomplished,  pretty  and 
amiable  girl  (the  belle  of  the  Chiaja),  who  eventually  became  the 
bride  of  a  young  English  surgeon,  the  successor  of  Dr.  Reilly  in  his 
professional  business.  Dr.  Reilly,  his  wife  and  daughter,  and  I  beheve, 
a  second  wife  also,  whom  he  married  about  ten  years  ago,  have  passed 
away  ;  and  of  all  the  English,  Irish,  and  Scotch — not  a  few  remark- 
able persons,  I  may  add — whom  I  remember  in  the  habit  of  frequent- 
ing that  pleasant  and  hospitable  house  of  his,  with  two  exceptions, 
those  of  Dr.  Quin,  now  established  in  his  profession  in  London,"^'  and 
my  worthy  old  friend,  Mr.  Ramsay,  living  in  Mordaunt  College, 
Blackheath,  none,  I  beheve,  are  in  being. 

THE    MARGRAVINE    OF    ANSPACH. 

Amongst  the  many  distinguished  persond,ges  with  whom  I  became 
acquainted  during  my  residence  in  Naples,  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able was  the  celebrated  Margravine  of  Anspach  and  Bayreuth.  Nor 
is  it  a  little  strange  that  a  man,  living  in  the  eighth  decade  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  should  in  his  early  career  have  been  well 
acquainted  with  a  lady  who  had  been  an  intimate  friend  of  Horace 
Walpole,  and  whose  liospitality  and  endowments  are  recorded  by 
Boswell,  and  were  appreciated  by  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson.  In  his 
biography  of  the  latter,  Boswell  speaks  of  Johnson  as  *'  dining 
with  the  beautiful,  gay,  and  fascinating  Lady  Craven."  Ah  !  if  the 
admiring  lexicographer  could  have  viewed  the  same  lady  through  a 
telescope  of  sixty  years'  power  of  looking  into  futurity,  how  he 
would  have  been  astounded  at  the  haggard  old  woman,  as  she  was 
in  her  latter  days  when  I  met  her,  retaining  nothing  of  the  former 
belle  but  the  sprightliness  of  her  nature,  and  that  vivacity  then  con- 

*  Pr.  Quia  died  iu  Loudon  in  18T9. 


DK.      E.     R.     MADDEN.  5l 

painfully    with   the  wreck  of   pristine   beauty  and 
comeliness. 

I.ady  Craven  separated  from  her  husband  in  1781,  and  the  suc- 
ceeding ten  years  of  her  life  were  passed  on  the  continent  and  in 
the  Levant.  In  1789  she  pubhshed  in  4to.  "  A  Journey  through 
the  Crimea  to  Constantinople."  Horace  Walpole,  in  November, 
1786,  wrote  to  Lady  Craven  on  the  difficulties  she  had  occasioned 
her  friends  by  the  rapidity  of  her  movements.  ..."  I  heard,"  he 
says, "  of  you  from  Venice,  then  from  Poland,  and  then,  having  whisked 
through  Tartary,  from  Petersburg,  but  still  no  directions.  I  said  to 
myself  I  will  write  to  Constantinople,  which  will  probably  be  her 
next  stage.  How  could  I  suppose  that  so  many  despotic  infidels 
would  part  with  your  charms."  Shortly  after  Lord  Craven's 
decease,  his  widow,  in  1791,  married  the  Margrave  of  Anspach  and 
Bayreuth.  This  Prince,  some  years  afterwards,  disposed  of  his 
German  principality  to  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  retired  to  England, 
where  he  died  in  1806,  at  Brandenburg  House,  Hammersmith, 
'i'he  festivities  and  fashionable  divertissements  folatres  of  Bran- 
denburg House  attracted  no  little  notice  in  their  day.  During  the 
latter  years  of  her  life,  the  Margravine  resided  altogether  at 
Naples.  Her  well-known  villa  in  the  vicinity  of  Posihpo, 
on  the  Strada  Nuova,  was  furnished  with  taste  and  elegance ; 
the  grounds  laid  out  with  great  care,  under  the  immediate  direc- 
tion of  the  Margravine. "'^ 

Lord  Charles  Murray,  son  of  the  Dowager  Duchess  of  Athol,  was 
one  of  my  patients  in  Naples  in  1822,  where  at  that  time  he  was 
recovering  from  an  attack  of  brain  fever,  which  had  been  followed 
by  a  temporary  mental  derangement.  On  one  occasion  he  begged 
me  to  accompany  him  to  the  residence  of  his  old  Iriend  the  Mar- 
gravine of  Anspach,  who  received  us  in  her  garden,  and  attired  in 
a  manner  not  calculated  to  encourage  gravity,  or  to  keep  an  excited 
person's  mind  long  in  an  undisturbed  condition.  For  a  few  moments 
our  visit  went  on  very  agreeably,  but  soon  a  cloud  began  to  gather. 
I  endeavoured  in  vain  to  hasten  our  departure  :  my  companion  per- 
sisting in  his  reminiscences  of  a  disagreeable  nature,  on  which  he 
enlarged  with  extraordinary  vehemence  and  volubility,  to  the  great 
amazement  of  the  Margravine,  who  accompanied  us  to  the  gate  of 
the  villa,  and  there  a  new  scene  was  in  store  for  her.  Lord  Charles 
insisted  on  showing  her  a  new  mode  of  entering  a  carriage,  which 
he  particularly  recommended  her  to  adopt ;  he  then  made  a  rush 
towards  the  carriage-door,  and,  putting  his  hand  on  the  window 
frame,  made  a  jump  of  that  kind  which  harlequins  and  clowns  are 
wont  to  make  through  panels  in  pantomimes,  and  fairly  launched 
the  upper  part  of  Ins   body  through  the  window,  leaving  his  long 

♦  The  Margravine  of  Auspacli  died  in  1828. 

5  * 


52  MEMOlBiS 


legs  on  the  outside,  kicking  furiously  in  all  directions.  The  con- 
sternation and  astonishment  of  the  Margravine  were  beyond  descrip- 
tion. I  succeeded,  with  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  by  opening  the 
opposite  door  of  the  carriage,  to  get  his  Lordship's  legs  dragged  in 
where  the  rest  of  his  person  was  hanging,  and,  not  without  much 
violence  on  his  part,  ending  in  ,the  demolition  of  all  the  glass  in  the 
vehicle,  managed  to  get  him  back  to  Naples. 

Poor  Lord  Charles  perfectly  recovered  his  reason  ;  and  about  two 
years  later  I  met  him  at  Marseilles  quite  restored.  He  was  then 
about  to  embark  for  Greece,  where,  having  volunteered  in  the 
cause  of  Greek  independence,  he  died  at  Gastouini  on  August 
11th,  1824,  aged  twenty-five,  having  undergone  every  species  of 
fatigue  and  j^i'i^'ation,  all  his  means  being  generously  devoted  to 
the  cause  he  had  espoused. 


THE  DUKE  DE  LAVAL  MONTMORENCY. 

This  antique  remnant  of  the  ancient  aristocracy  of  France  was 
ambassador  at  the  Court  of  Eome  in  1825,  when  Lady  Blessiugton 
had  taken  up  her  abode  at  the  Palazzo  Negroni.  The  Duke, 
whom  I  had  subsequently  met  at  Rome  on  several  occasions,  was  a 
remarkable  person  in  society.  Occasionally  lively  and  spiritueJ, 
frequently  and  suddenly  somnolent,  and  always,  when  awake,  ex- 
tremely gallant  and  comphmentary  to  the  ladies.  But  his  compli- 
ments and  eulogies  were  generally  wal  aprojjos.  All  his  senses,  and 
a  few  of  his  faculties  were  defective  ;  some  impaired  by  age,  one 
naturally  imperfect.  In  these  particulars  he  resembled  an  old 
Chancery  barrister.  Bell,  whom  Lord  Eldon  used  to  commend, 
though  he  could  neither  talk,  walk,  think,  or  write  like  any  other  man. 
The  Duke's  talent  for  diplomacy  was  said  to  have  outlived  all  his 
other  capabilities.  He  was  respected,  however,  by  all  who  knew 
him,  for  his  sterling  worth  and  his  generous  conduct,  especially  to 
Pius  VII.  when  in  France,  whose  wants  were  liberally  supplied  by 
him. 


THE    ABBE    CAMPBELL. 

My  acquaintance  with  the  celebrated  Abbe  Campbell,  the  clergy- 
man by  whom  the  Prince  Regent's  marriage  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
had  been  solemnized,  commenced  in  Naples  in  1821.  At  that  time 
he  must  have  been  upwards  of  sixty-eight  years  of  age  ;  his  features 
were  heavy,  coarse  and  vulgar ;  his  dress  was  negligent  and  ill- 
fitting,  and  generally  bedaubed  with  snuff.  There  was  nothing 
jn  his  character,   his  education,    his   manners,    or  his  habits,  to 


DE.     E.     R.     ^-rADPEN.  53 


conciliate  men's  favourable  opinions  ;  and  he  was  yet  distingnislieil 
for  a  sort  of  mysterious  prestige — an  apprehension  of  his  power 
over  people  in  high  places,  in  several  courts,  and  in  various  con- 
tinental capitals,  and  so  he  was  courted  even  in  the  best  society. 
In  Naples,  his  intimate  relations  of  friendship  with  the  Minister 
Medici,  and  the  terms  of  acquaintance  on  which  he  was  with  the 
old  King  Ferdinand,  gave  an  importance  to  his  "  undefined  and 
undefinable  position  in  society."  The  Abbe  was  said  to  have  a  pen- 
sion from  the  Neapolitan  Government,  and  an  annual  stipend  also 
from  some  official  source  in  England,  and  for  some  public  services 
of  a  j^rivate  nature. 

He  had  been  chaplain  to  the  Neapolitan  Ambassador  in  London, 
about  the  time  of  the  marriage  of  the  Prince  Regent  with  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  and  rumour  assigned  the  performance  of  that  marriage 
ceremony  to  him.  I  have  heard  this  rumour  mentioned  in  the 
presence  of  the  Abbe,  and  it  remained  so  far  acquiesced  in,  as  to 
leave  an  impression  that  he  at  least  knew  the  priest  by  whom  the 
marriage  was  celebrated.  Some  years  later,  I  was  assured  by  the 
late  Mr.  Thomas  Savory,  of  Sussex-place,  Regent's  Park,  the  con- 
fidential friend  of  the  Duke  of  Sussex,  that  he  knew  for  a  certainty 
that  the  ceremony  had  been  performed  by  a  Roman  Catholic  priest 
connected  with  one  of  the  foreign  embassies  in  London,  and  who 
thought  it  prudent  to  fly  the  country  after  the  marriage  ceremony 
had  been  performed. 

The  Abbe  was  on  terms  of  close  intimacy  with  the  late  King  of 
Hanover,  and  with  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  and  seldom  visited 
England  that  he  did  not  enjoy  the  Duke's  hospitahty.  It  was 
something  more  than  amusing  to  hear  this  old  man,  of  an  obscure 
origin  and  humble  rank,  of  no  very  prepossessing  appearance  or 
courtly  manners,  vaunting  of  his  intimacy  and  terms  of  familiar 
intercourse  with  Kings  and  Princes  and  Ministers  of  State  : — "  My 
friend  Cumberland,"  ''  My  old  acquaintance  the  King  of  Sardinia ;  " 
"  Mio  caro  amico  Medici,"  &c.  Few  people  could  tell  the  place  of 
birth,  parentage,  or  antecedents  of  the  Abbe.  He  passed  for  an 
Englishman  with  Scotchmen,  a  Scotchman  with  Enghshmeu. 
To  Dr.  Reilly,  Dr.  Quin,  myself,  and  one  or  two  more,  he  was 
known,  however,  to  be  a  native  of  the  north  of  Ireland. 

He  was  pleased  to  promise  me  on  divers  occasions  the  inherit- 
ance of  his  papers,  and  amongst  the  rest,  some  fragments  of  a 
memoir  of  his  life,  which  he  had  written  some  years  previously,  and 
condemned  to  the  flames — no  doubt  very  judiciously — when  the 
Carbonari  got  the  upper  hand  in  Naples.  In  attempting  to  destroy 
the  MS.,  in  a  place  suitable  for  that  purpose,  a  sudden  puff* of  wind 
scattered  the  burning  papers  about  the  Abbe,  and,  according  to  his 
humourous  account  of  the  auto-da-fe  of  his  memoirs,  he  was  in  danger 
of  sutfering  death  by  his  own  lile.  He  made  yearly  journeys  to 
London,  where  he  used  to  instal  himself  in  the  house  of  my  old  friend, 


MEMOIRS 


Thomas  Field  Savory,  in  Sussex-place,  whose  nephew,  Mr.  John 
Savory,  is  the  head  of  the  firm  of  Savory  and  Moore,  of  Bond-street. 
A  few  months  before  his  deatli  in  1830,  he  called  on  Mrs.  Savory 
and,  with  great  solemnity  of  manner,  placed  a  small  package  in  her 
hand,  and  spoke  of  his  tender  regard  for  her  husband.  He  went 
away  very  much  affected,  and  never  was  seen  more  by  his  kind 
friends.  The  precious  package  was  opened  with  all  due  care  when 
he  was  gone,  and  some  twenty  yards  of  old  Mechlin  lace  were  found. 
The  next  news  from  Naples  brought  the  intelligence  of  the  Abbe's 
death.  A  young  gentleman,  his  nephew,  inherited  his  property — 
about  £16,000  — and  in  a  few  years  managed,  I  believe,  to  get 
through  the  whole  of  it. 

SIR    FREDERICK    FAULKNER. 

Those  who  were  acquainted  with  Naples  about  fifty  years  ago, 
might  have  well  remembered  an  Irish  gentleman,  tall  and  portly, 
of  prepossessing  appearance  and  elegant  manners — one  of  the  old 
school  of  Hibernian  gentry — who  was  exceedingly  poor,  and  might 
have  been  extremely  rich,  and  who  lived  on  his  friends  from  day  to 
day,  always  in  expectation  of  remittances  and  rents  which,  alas, 
never  came  to  hand.  Sir  Frederick  Faulkner  was  this  unhappy 
gentleman,  a  person  abounding  in  anecdote,  most  agreeable  in 
society,  and  singularly  inconsistent  in  his  character.  For  many 
years  before  the  Union  Faulkner  was  a  member  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment for  the  county  Meath,  and,  to  his  honour,  was  one  of  the  most 
strenuous  opponents  of  that  iU-starrcd  measure,  although  in  very 
straitened  circumstances,  and  having  divers  overtures  of  a  tempting 
nature  made  to  him  for  his  support. 

FREDERICK    QUIN,    ESQ.,    M.D. 

In  18^1  my  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Quin  commenced  in  Naples.  He 
was  then  a  young  medical  practitioner,  in  great  vogue  with  all 
fashionable  English  visitors  in  Naples :  full  of  life  and  spirits,  of 
excellent  address,  with  a  keen  perception  of  the  ridiculous,  and  a 
great  zest  for  merriment.  Moreover,  Dr.  Quin  had  solid  worth  and 
good  sound  sense  to  bring  to  the  aid  of  his  professional  talents, 
and  by  these  he  afterwards  won  his  way  into  a  foremost  position  as 
the  leading  homoeopathic  physician  in  vogue  with  the  highest  ranks  of 
London  society.  Yet  I  remember  when  the  doctor  made  a  burla  of 
Hahnemann  and  his  infinitesimal  dose  system.  At  an  early  period 
of  his  career  in  Naples,  professing  to  write  against  homoeopathy,  he 
went  to  Germany  to  inquire  into  the  system,  and  he  who  went  to 
scoff,  remained  to  study,  and  to  l)ecome  a  convert  to  the  new  theory 
of  medicine. 


DR.     R.     R.     MADDEV.  55 


Amongst  my  many  other  friends  in  Naples  were  : — William 
Drummond,  Sir  William  Gell.  the  Hon.  Keppel  Craven,  Count 
D'Orsaj,  Sir  Richard  Acton  and  his  lady;  Dr.  Watson,  the  celebrated 
linguist ;  Eamsay,  the  Scotch  merchant,  with  his  elegant  tastes 
and  classic  lore ;  Cottrell,  the  wine  merchant,  of  Fallernian 
celebrity,  renowned  for  his  lachrymachristi,  and  his  efforts  to  rival 
Francis,  and  to  render  Horace  into  better  English  than  all  previous 
translators  ;  young  Charles  Mathews,  Boskelly  and  Doratt,  the 
rival  Doctors  ;  and  Milne,  the  pleasant  Scot  and  accomplished 
physician  of  the  Ohiatamone  ;  old  Walker,  of  the  Largo  Castello, 
the  expatriated  jManchester  reformer,  who,  in  the  good  old  times  of 
William  Pitt  and  George  III.,  was  tried  for  sedition,  and  narrowly 
escaped  the  fate  of  his  reforming  brethren,  Muir  and  Palmer ;  and 
though  last,  not  least  deserving  of  remembrance  and  of  honourable 
mention  in  the  list  of  worthies  from  foreign  lauds  who  figured  in 
Neapohtan  Society  some  thirty  years  ago — the  venerable  Command- 
ant of  the  Castello  Nuovo — General  Wade,  the  venerable  Irish 
warrior,  one  of  the  brave  old  soldiers  of  the  Brigade,  renowned  for 
his  hospitality,  and  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him,  English,  Irish, 
and  Italian.  Maurice  Quill  should  have  lived  at  Naples  in  those 
days,  and  Lever  should  have  recorded  all  the  extraordinary  scenes 
and  ridiculous  occurrences,  the  reminiscences  of  which  are  con- 
nected with  the  names  of  Reilly  and  the  Abbe  Campbell,  Quiii, 
Mahon,  Mathews,  Angell,  Thornton,  the  Irish  tutor  of  the  Duchei^s 
of  Eboli ;  Ridge  way,  the  Secretary  of  Lady  Drummond  ;  young 
Edward  Molyneux,  and  his  friend,  R.  R.  M.,  then  an  incipient 
surgeon,  in  those  days  of  nature,  not  unfit  for  scenes  of  gfiiety  and 
humour,  nor  unfamdiar  witli  them.  On  leaving  Italy  for  the 
Levant  in  IH-H,  from  the  last  named  of  my  Neapolitan  friends  I 
received  the  following  valedictory  lines  : 

LINES   TO   DR.   R.    R.  MADDEN, 

[On  his  departure  for  the  Levant,  by  E.  Moltjncux). 

Farewell  once  more,  and  may  a  prosiDerous  breeze 

In  safety  bear  thee  o'er  the  pathless  sea, 

Smooth  may  the  billows  roll  and  waft  thee  soon 

To  those  bright  climes,  the  favoured  of  the  sun. 

May  He  who  bbss'd  the  tirst  poor  wand'ring  ark. 

In  every  danger  smile  upon  thy  bark, 

And  when  thy  feet  shall  gladly  press  that  strand 

Where  once  Diana  smiled — think  on  that  land. 

Dearer  to  thee  than  all  the  shores  of  earth, 

Thy  own  dear  Isle,  the  Isle  that  gave  thee  birth. 

Let  not  thy  pen  rest  idly  in  her  cause. 

That  cause  which  e'en  from  breasts  of  strangers  drew 

A  sigh  of  pity,  while  it  dims  each  eye 

With  honest  tears  of  heartfelt  sympathy. 


MEMOIRS 


CHAPTER  X. 

EECOT  LECTIONS    OF  THEATEICAL  CELEBRITIES JOHN     KEMBLE,  KEAX, 

TALMA,  M.  DUCITENOIS,  COLEMAN,  BANNISTEB,  HAELEY,  MATHEWS. 

In  earlier  life  my  great  partiality  for  the  theatre  made  me  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  acting  of  all  our  celebrated  performers  (tragic  es- 
pecially) during  the  first  half  of  this  century.  I  had  frequently  seen 
John  Kemhle,  and  more  particularly  remember  his  wonderful  acting 
of  Hamlet,  Coriolanus,  and  King  Lear.  I  had  also  seen  Kean  in  his 
best  days,  in  his  chief  parts, — especially  in  his  unrivalled  Othello, 
Shylock,  Sir  Edward  Mortimer,  and  Richard  III.  But  highly  as 
I  thought  of  the  various  excellences  of  both,  and  especially  of  the 
powers  of  the  latter.  Talma's  genius  appeared  to  me  of  a  higher 
order  than  that  of  either  Kean  or  Kemble.  During  eight  or  ten 
months  in  1820,  I  had  many  opportunities  of  witnessing  the 
unrivalled  talents  of  this  great  actor  in  the  Theatre  Frangais. 
He  died  in  1826,  and  was  buried  at  Pere  La  Chaise,  Paris. 
Talma  made  his  debut  in  1787,  in  the  part  of  Seide  in  the 
tragedy  of  Mahomet,  and  went  triumphantly  from  role  to  role  till 
the  sceptre  of  Melpomene  remained  undisputed  in  his  hands. 
There  was  great  dignity,  power,  and  deep  feehng  in  his  perform- 
ancos.  In  the  part  of  Sylla  these  peculiar  qualitities  of  his,  com- 
bined with  his  striking  resemblance  to  Napoleon,  produced  an 
astonishing  effect.  Talma  was  admirably  supported  at  the  time 
referred  to  by  the  celebrated  Mdlle.  Duchenois,  the  tragic  actress, 
whose  like  1  never  saw  on  any  stage,  and  never  expect  to  look  upon 
again  in  any  country.  This  admirable  actress  w^as  remarkably 
plain,  but  not  repulsively  ugly,  though  her  features  were  pitted 
with  small-pox.  But  the  w^onderful  sweetness,  the  flexibility  and 
finely  modulated  cadence  of  her  voice,  were  unequalled.  Madame 
de  Stael  said  of  it :  "  Elle  avait  des  pleurs  dans  la  voix.".  Mdlle. 
Rachelle,  with  all  her  great  powers,  and  great  unquestionably  they 
are,  certainly  does  not  approach  the  excellence  of  her  predecessor, 
Mdlle.  Duchenois. 

The  death  of  George  Coleman  the  younger  preceded  only  a  few 
months  that  of  his  old  friend  and  fellow-labourer  in  theatrical  affairs, 
Jack  Bannister,  the  son  of  Charles  Bannister,  famous  as  a  singer 
and  a  wit.  Jack  was  intended  for  a  painter,  but  Garrick,  observing 
the  young  lad's  comic  talents,  diverted  his  attention  from  the  pencil 
and  directed  it  to  the  stage.  Master  John  Bannister  appeared  at 
Drury  Lane  theatre  in  1779  in  minor  tragic  characters  and  walking 
gentlemen.     In  1778,  Mr.  Bannister,  jun.,  made  his  debut  at  the 


DR.   R.  R.    MADDEN. 


Haymarket  in  '' The  Apprentice."  In  1779,  the  Bannisters  (father 
and  son)  played  at  Covent  Garden,  and  for  his  own  benefit.  Jack 
for  the  first  time  gave  imitations  of  the  performers,  which  were 
greatly  admired.  Both  the  Bannisters  were  excellent  mimics.  The 
younger  gained  great  fame  not  only  for  himself,  but  for  George 
Coleman,  by  playing  in  several  of  the  comic  pieces  of  the  latter. 
He  strangely  imagined,  however,  that  the  bent  of  his  genius  was 
for  tragedy,  and  frequently  acted  on  that  delusion.  He  married 
Miss  Harper,  a  rich  actress  and  vocalist  of  some  note,  in  1783. 
Jack's  great  characters  were  Peeping  Tom,  Jingo,  Sylvester, 
Daggerwood  Dabble  in  the  Humorist,  Bobadil,  Bob  Acres, 
and  Pangioss. 

In  1807,  a  collection  of  his  songs,  recitations,  and  imitations  were 
revised  and  re-written  for  him  by  his  friend,  George  Coleman  the 
younger,  under  the  title  of  '•  The  Budget."  The  mono- dramatic 
entertainment,  originally  introduced  by  Foote  and  Dibdin,  was 
followed  in  latter  times  by  Charles  Mathews  the  elder  in  his 
"At  Home,"  which  was  equally  successful.  In  1815,  Jack  Bannis- 
ter, who  had  not  only  made  money  by  the  stage,  but  who  kept  what 
he  gained  there,  took  leave  of  the  public  and  his  profession  in  the 
character  of  Echo  in  Kenny's  comedy  of  "  The  World,"  in  which 
he  gave,  for  the  last  time  on  the  stage,  his  imitations  of  popular 
comedians.  But  not  for  the  last  time  were  they  given  in  private 
circles.  Many  years  afterwards  I  heard  the  last  performance  of 
this  kind  which  he  ever  gave,  only  a  few  months  before  his  death, 
at  the  house  of  his  old  friend,  Thomas  Field  Savory,  of  the  Re- 
gent's Park,  where  I  often  met  him  in  company  with  Listen, 
Mathews,  Pope,  Charles  Kemble,  and  Harley.  The  venerable 
comedian.  Jack  Bannister,  was  greatly  loved  by  all  his  friends  of 
the  Sock  and  Buskin.  At  the  time  I  knew  him  he  w^as  a  remark- 
ably comely,  hale,  honest  looking  and  hearty  old  gentleman.  He 
died  at  his  house  in  Gower-street,  Bedford  Square,  in  November 
1830,  aged  86. 

Frank  Cymric  Sheridan  (my  old  Jamaica  friend)  an  amateur  actor 
of  great  repute,  was  third  son  of  Tom  Sheridan  (son  of  Eichard 
Brindsley)  by  his  marriage  with  a  daughter  of  John  Callander, 
Esq.,  of  Craigsford,  Co.  Stirlhig,  and  Ardkinglass,  Co.  Argyll  (in 
virtue  of  which  latter  property  he  took  the  additional  name  of 
his  third  wife.  Lady  Elizabeth  Helen  MacDonnell,  daughter  of 
the  5th  Earl  of  Antrim.  Frank  died  in  the  Mauritius,  where 
he  held  the  office  of  Private  Secretary  to  the  Earl  of  Mulgrave. 
He  was  a  young  man  of  excellent  talents,  great  comic  powers, 
and  some  poetical  ones  of  no  mean  order,  devoted  to  ludicrous 
subjects.  He  bore  a  most  striking  resemblance  to  his  sister, 
Mrs.  Norton. 


58  MEMOIRS 


CHARLES    MATHEWS. 


This  world  renowned  actor — long  my  intimate  friend,  Charles 
James  Mathews — son  of  the  elder  comedian  of  that  name,  was 
born  in  Liverpool  al)out  180'2,  and  in  1819  was  articled  to  Mr. 
Pugin  with  a  view  of  becoming  an  architect.  In  this  capacity,  in 
1833,  he  accompanied  Lord  Blessington  to  Ireland,  w^here  his 
Lordship  proposed  building  a  mansion  on  his  Tyrone  estate  of 
Mountjoj  Forest.  Shortly  previously,  however,  Mathews  had  given 
a  forecast  of  his  histrionic  powers  in  private  theatricals  at  the 
English  opera  house,  on  the  site  of  which  is  the  present  Lyceum 
theatre.  After  his  return  from  Ireland  he  was  invited  by  Lord 
and  Lady  Blessington  to  visit  Naples,  w^here  he  resided  wdth  them 
for  some  time  in  the  Palazzo  Belvidere.  In  that  hospitable  house 
of  one  of  my  earliest  patients  and  friends  (Lady  Blessington),  my 
acquaintance  with  Charles  Mathews  commenced  in  1824,  and  con- 
tinued down  to  the  period  of  his  death  in  June  1878.  This  is  not 
the  place  to  refer  to  the  pre-eminence  Mathews  subsequently  at- 
tained and  retained  as  the  first  comedian  of  the  age.  Nor  did  his 
career  as  an  actor  begin  until  some  years  after  the  period  alluded 
to,  viz.,  in  1837,  when  it  commenced  at  the  Olympic  Theatre,  where 
he  made  his  professional  debut  in  his  own  comedy  of  "  The  Hunch- 
backed Lover."  My  present  reminiscences  w^ere  connected  with 
an  earlier  part  of  Mr.  Mathews  life  and  of  my  own.  I  may  now 
indeed  fitly  re-echo  Hamlet's  words,  "  Alas  poor  Yorick  ! — I  knew 
him,  Horatio;  a  fellow  of  infinite  jest." — Full  of  vivacity  and 
drollery,  but  always  gentlemanlike  wdthal.  Notwithstanding  his 
irrepressible  buoyancy  of  spirits,  and  in  the  very  height  of  his  drol- 
lery in  the  society  of  Belvidere  Palace,  where  all  the  elite  of  foreign 
society  were  wont  to  congregate,  he  never,  by  a  single  one  of  his 
innumerable  sallies  of  sportiveness  gave  offence  to  any  human  being. 
His  talents  as  a  draughtsman  were  far  above  mediocrity.  Of  his 
Vers  de  Societe,  burlesque  poetry  and  epigrams  in  1894-25,  many 
specimens  were  given  to  me  by  Mathews.  In  the  latter  year  an  occur- 
rence of  a  serious  character  took  place  betw^een  Mathews  and  Count 
D'Orsay,  attended  with  some  unpleasant  results,  and  a  correspon- 
dence that  passed  through  my  hands,  wdiich  by  the  permission  of 
Mr.  Mathews  I  may  here  avail  myself  of.  I  wall  only  observe  that 
I  consented  to  interfere  in  this  misunderstanding  with  a  determina- 
tion to  bring  it,  if  possible,  to  a  peaceful  issue,  in  which  I  fortunately 
succeeded,  and  that  I  then  contemplated  the  possibility  of  an  opposite 
result  very  differently  to  the  way  in  w^hich  I  now  regard  it ;  believ- 
ing, as  I  do,  that  in  a  controversy  between  persons  w^ho  differ  in 
opinion  and  give  expression  to  their  feelings  angrily  or  offensively, 


DK.    R.    E.    MADDEN. 


recourse  to  pistols  for  the  vindication  of  their  sentiments,  or  on  ac- 
count of  what  others  may  think  of  them,  is  far  from  any  evidence 
of  the  highest  wisdom,  the  truest  courage,  or  the  firmest  behef  in 
Christianity,  but  that  on  the  contrary,  such  a  course  is  at  signal 
variance  with  all  these.  .   .   . 

[We  need  not  here  insert  the  personal  statements  of  Mr.  Mathews, 
nor  the  lengthy  correspondence  which  took  place  between  him, 
Count  D'Orsay,  Lord  Llessington,  and  Dr.  Madden  in  relation  to 
this  affair,  as  these  may  be  found  in  the  latter's  "  Memoirs  of  Lady 
Blessington;'  (vol.  I.)  A  few  extracts  from  these  documents  may 
however  be  permissible  in  this  connection.] 

"  I  immediately  set  off  to  Naples,"  says  Mr.  Mathews,  "  to 
the  house  of  Mr.  Madden,  who  promised,  before  I  mentioned  any 
names,  to  act  as  my  second  on  the  occasion.  I  then  stated  the 
circumstances,  and  he  adAdsed  me  to  return  to  Belvidere  whilst  he 
conducted  the  business!"  In  his  letter  to  Count  D'Orsay,  Dr. 
Madden  appealed  to  the  former  to  practice  "  the  honourable  con- 
descension of  a  brave  man  by  making  an  atonement  for  a  hasty  in- 
jury."  "It  is,"  he  added,— "  with  a  full  knowledge  of  your  manly 
spirit  that  I  demand  an  acknowledgment,  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Mathews,  of  having  been  betrayed  by  anger  into  expressions 
which  only  those  who  do  not  know  you,  could  think  of  attribut- 
ing to  intentional  incivihty. 

''  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  Monsieur  le  Comte,  with  the  highest 
respect, 

"  Your  obedient,  liumble  servant, 

"  R.  H.  Madden." 

MoN   Cher  Mr.  Madden, 

****** 

"Je  suis  tres  loin  d'etre  fache  que  Mr.  Mathews  vous  ait 
choisi  pour  son  temoin,  ma  seule  crainte  eut  ete  qu'il  en  choisisse 
un  autre.  Je  suis  aussi  tres  loin  d'etre  offense  d'un  de  vos  avis, 
lorsque  J'estime  quelqu'un,  son  opinion  est  toujours  bien  reeue. 
..."  Pour  votre  observation  sur  la  difference  des  rangs,  elle  est 
inutile,  car  jamais  je  n'attache  d'importance  au  rang  qui  se  trouve 
souvent  compromis  par  tant  de  betes,  je  juge  les  personnes  pour  ce 
qu'ils  sent,  sans  m'informer  ce  que  c'etoient  leurs  ancetres,  et  si 
mon  superieur  eut  employe  la  meme  maniere  de  me  reprocher  qu'a 
pris  Mathews  j'aurois  surement  fait,  ce  que  je  n'ai  fait  que  dire  a 
Mathews  que  j'aime  beaucoup  trop,  pour  le  rabaisser  a  ses  propres 
yeux,  et  vous  sentez  qu'il  seroit  ridicule  a  moi  de  ne  pas  avouer  que 
i'ai  tortdelui  avoir  dit  des  paroles  trop  forte  s,mais  en  meme  temps  ]e 
ne  veux  pas  nier  mes  paroles,  c'est  a  dire  mon  projet  de  voiture,  &c. 


60  MEMOIRS 


Si  Mathews  veut  satisfaction  je  lui  donneroi  tant  qu'il  liii  plaira,  tout 
en  lui  sacliant  bon  gre  cle  vous  avoir  choisi  pour  son  temoin 

*'  Cette  affaire  est  aussi  desagreable  pour  vous,  que  pour  nous 
tous,  mais  au  moius  elle  n'altera  pas  I'amitie  de 

"  Yotre  tout  devoue 

"Ct.  D'Orsat/' 

''  This  cleverly  worded  note  Madden  handed  to  me,  and  I  re- 
turned it  to  him  without  a  word.  I  was  determined  that  I  would 
leave  everything  to  Madden,  who,  I  was  convinced,  would  not  com- 
promise me  in  any  way.  When  he  had  read  it  again,  he  wrote  a 
fitting  answer  to  the  Count."  In  the  evening,  Madden  advised 
me  to  return  to  Belvidere,  and  give  mj  hand  to  Count  D'Orsay. 
After  thanking  him  for  his  friendship,  I  went  home.  The  next 
morning  I  went  as  usual  to  the  drawingroom,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
the  Count  came  in.  I  rose  and  gave  him  my  hand,  which  he  re- 
ceived most  cordially,  and  said,  '  J'espere  mon  cher  Mathews,  que 
vous  etes  satisfait.     Je  suis  bien  fache  pour  ce  que  je  vous  ai  dis, 

mais  j'etais  in  colere  et.' '  Mon  cher  Comte,'  said 

I,  '  n'en  parlons  plus,  je  vous  en  prie,  je  I'ai  tout-a-fait  oublie.' 
Thus  ended  this  unhapj^y  business,  for  which  no  one  could  be  more 
sorry  than  myself,  though  I  am  quite  convinced  that  Count 
D'Crsay,  whenever  he  reflects  upon  it,  will  perfectly  exculpate  me 
from  the  charge  of  having  taken  one  step  beyond  what  was  neces- 
sary, or  what  he  would  himself  have  done  under  similar  circum- 
stances.— J.  C.  M." 


CHAPTER.    XT. 

EETURN    TO    ENGLAND. MARKIAGE    W^TH    MISS    nAREIET    ELMSLIE. 

Shortly  after  his  return  to  England,  Dr.  Madden  was  married  in 
1828,  at  Cheltenham,  to  Miss  Harriet  T.  Elmslie,  youngest 
daughter  of  the  late  John  Elmslie,  Esq.,  of  Berners-street,  London, 
and  owner  of  Serge  Island  and  other  estates  in  Jamaica.-!'  By 
a  singular  coincidence,  like  her  husband,  Mrs.  Madden  was  the 
twenty-first  and  youugest  of  her  father's  family.  This  union  was 
the  circumstance  of  all  others  on  which  Dr.  Madden  had  reason  to 
congratulate  himself  throughout  the  rest  of  his  life,  in  thus  having 
chosen  for  his  wife  a  lady  of  great  natural  endowments,  highly 
educated  and  accomplished.  These  endowments  she  employed  to 
the  last  hour  of  existence  with  untiring  zeal  and  devotion  in 
all  the  subsequent  vicissitudes  of  life  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe, 

*  Vide  Appendix, 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  6l 


for  the  benefit  of  her  husband  and  of  her  family.  From  the  time 
of  Dr.  Madden's  marriage,  there  were  few  pages  of  his,  more  than 
forty  vokimes,  besides  the  innumerable  ephemeral  writings  which 
he  published,  that  were  not  corrected,  revised,  or  transcribed  by 
this  intellectual  and  good  wife,  and  best  of  mothers.  In  his  labours 
at  home  and  abroad,  in  many  distant  lands  where  he  was  engaged 
in  connexion  with  the  abolition  of  negro  slavery  and  other  philan- 
trophic  works,  she  was  always  his  efficient,  prudent,  and  self-sacri- 
ficing helpmate  and  counsellor ;  and  every  trouble,  sickness  or 
sorrow,  she  incessantly  strove  to  solace  and  comfort  others,  whilst 
bearing  her  own  full  share  of  such  trials  with  unmurmuring  re- 
signation. To  her  courage  and  presence  of  mind  her  husband  in 
subesquent  years  owed  his  life  when  threatened  with  assassination 
on  two  occasions  hereafter  to  be  referred  to.  It  may  be  added  that 
some  years  after  her  marriage  Mrs.  Madden,  when  in  Cuba  in  1837, 
from  sincere  conviction — and  from  a  circumstance  of  a  character 
too  solemn  to  be  here  referred  to,  became  a  convert  to  the  Catholic 
Faith,  into  which  she  was  received  in  the  Havanna  by  a  Spanish 
Franciscan  friar,  Padre  Moreno,  a  man  remarkable  for  the  singular 
piety  and  self-denial  of  his  life.  From  that  time  forth  Mrs.  Madden 
was  ever  a  most  fervent  and  exemplary  member  of  the  Faith  which 
she  had  embraced.  In  the  daily  practice  of  its  teachings,  up  to 
her  last  moment  of  existence,  she  found  the  best  solace  for  the 
many  trials  and  bereavements  of  her  life.  Always  charitable  to 
the  poor  ;  most  generous  and  tolerant  to  all  but  herself,  as  she 
had  hved,  so  she  died,  just  two  years  after  her  husband,  the 
7th  of  February  1888,  at  Vernon -terrace,  Booterstown,  in  the 
87th  year  of  her  age,  her  mind  unclouded,  her  last  action 
an  effort  to  make  the  sign  of  redemption,  and  her  last  breath  a 
prayer,  and  was  interred  in  the  Madden  family  grave  in  the  old 
churchyard  of  Donnybrook. 

After  his  marriage  Dr.  Madden,  having  become  a  Member  of  the 
Boyal  College  of  Surgeons  of  England,  of  which  he  was  sub- 
sequently admitted  a  Fellow,  settled  down  in  England  to  the 
exercise  of  his  profession,  and  with  this  object  commenced  prac- 
tice in  Maidstone.  After  some  time  he  removed  to  St.  Leonard's, 
where  he  entered  into  partnership  with  another  surgeon,  from 
whom,  subsequently,  finding  this  arrangement  unsatisfactory  he 
separated,  and  soon  secured  a  large  share  of  practice.  During 
this  time  he  was  called  over  to  Ireland  by  the  news  of  the 
serious  illness  of  his  mother  to  whom  he  was  devotedly  attached. 
He  arrived  in  Dublin,  however,  only  a  few  hours  after  her  death, 
owing  to  an  accident  on  this  then  long  passage.  Some  weeks 
later  he  returned  to  St.  Leonard's,  and  shortly  afterwards,  acting  on 
the  advice  of  his  friends,  he  removed  to  London  and  took  a  house 


62  MEMOIES 


in  Curzon-street,  in  the  fashionable  district  of  May  fair.  Here, 
largely  by  the  influence  of  the  Blessingtons  and  several  others  of 
his  former  English  Neapolitan  patients,  his  practice  steadily 
increased,  although  to  some  extent  interfered  with  by  the  literary 
pursuits  to  which  he  was  devoted.  His  first  venture  in  this  way 
was  highly  successful,  being  his  ''  Travels  in  the  East,"  of  which 
Messrs.  Colburn  published  two  editions  in  1829-80,  and  for  which 
they  paid  him  three  hundred  guineas,  then  considered  a  large 
sum  for  the  first  work  of  a  new  author.  This  was  followed  a  year 
later  by  "  The  Mussulman,"  an  oriental  novel  in  three  volumes,  for 
which  he  received  a  similar  sum. 

The  agitation  for  the  abolition  of  negro  slavery  was  then  in  full 
swing  ;  and  into  this  movement  Dr.  Madden  threw  himself  with 
all  the  ardour  of  his  nature,  the  leading  characteristic  of  which  was 
an  intense  love  of  justice  and  a  hatred  of  oppression  in  whatever 
clime  or  on  whatever  race  it  might  be  exercised.  Accordingly  he 
became  an  active  member  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and  was 
thus  brought  into  intimate  contact  with  men  like  Wilberforce, 
Sturge,  Clarkeson,  Bright,  and  the  other  leaders  of  that  great 
movement  by  which  the  shackles  of  slavery  were  ultimately  riven 
from  millions  of  suffering  human  beings  in  every  part  of  the  world, 
whose  only  crime  was  that  of  race  and  colour.  On  the  passing  of 
the  law  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  in  1833*  Dr. 
Madden  resolved  on  abandoning  his  professional  prospects  with  the 
object  of  personally  assisting  in  the  carrying  out  of  that  great  -vvork 
of  humanity.  Accordingly,  through  the  willing  assistance  of  Sir  F. 
Buxton  and  his  other  colleagues  in  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  he  was 
appointed  by  the  Government  to  the  office  of  Special  Magistrate  in 
Jamaica,  and  embarked  from  Falmouth  for  that  island  on  the  5th 
October  1883. 

In  a  letter  to  his  intimate  friend,  the  poet  Campbell,  Dr.  Madden 
thus  describes  his  departure  for  the  West  Indies : — 

''  Falmouth,  October  4th  1833. 

*'  To-morrow  I  embark  for  Jamaica  onboard  his  Majesty's  packet 
J?cZi/?se,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Griffi_n  of  the  Eoyal  Navy.  At  the 
hotel  where  I  have  taken  up  my  quarters  there  are  five  other  gentle- 
men, holding  special  commissions  like  myself,  destined  for  Jama'ca — 
Major  McGreggor,  Captain  Dean,  Lieutenants  Colebrook  and  Ever- 
ard,  and  Mr.  Norcott.  If  our  passage  does  not  ]3rove  an  agreeable 
one,  the  weather  and  not  my  companions  must  surely  be  to  blame, 
for  a  more  agreeable  set  of  men  I  have  seldom  m^et  Avith.     There  is 

*  In  that  year  Lord  Stanley's  motion  was  cai  tied,  by  which,  at  a  cost  of  twenty  millions 
sterling,  and,  at  the  expiration  of  a  further  period  of  seven  years  of  modified  oppression,  i.e. 
thp  so-called  Apprenticeship  System ;  negro  slavery  was  ultimately  abolished  in  the  West 
Indies. 


DE.     K.     K.     MADDEN.  6B 


something  peculiar  in  the  merriment  of  men  who  are  embarking  for 
far-distant  lands — it  is  too  high,  too  hectic  a  sprightliness  for  genuine 
gaiety,  and  I  never  see  it  that  I  do  not  look  athwart  its  glare  for  the 
sombre  shapes  of  regretted  friends,  or  flitting  ghosts  of  departed  ioys : 
they  glide  before  the  scene  that's  acting,  and  are  not  to  be  jeered 
from  memory.  No  matter ; — feigned  or  felt,  we  are  all  in  high  spirits. 
— How  will  they  be  I  wonder  this  day  twelve-month  ?  how  many  of 
the  merry  party  may  then  be  in  existence  ?  You  are  not  fond  of 
the  lugubrious,  neither  am  I;  but  you  have  not  forgotten  that 
sohtary  child  of  mine,*  w^hom  you  were  wont  to  call  '  the 
audacious  boy : '  well,  it  was  necessary  to  part  with  him  the  day 
before  we  set  out  for  Falmouth.  I  had  enough  on  the  Jamaica  die 
without  staking  my  little  fellow's  life.  So  we  packed  him  off  to 
Cheltenham,  where  he  was  to  remain  with  a  kind  relative  ;  and 
when  the  urchin  was  leaving  us,  and  found  himself  (for  the  first 
time  in  his  life)  in  a  coach  drawn  hy  four  horses,  the  uproarious- 
ness  of  his  glee,  as  he  waved  his  cap  and  bid  us  good-bye,  was  in 
such  miserable  unison  with  his  poor  mother's  feelings,  that  I  thought 
I  l)egan  to  understand  the  full  meaning  of  the  mournful  words 
ascribed  to  Queen  Mary — 

•  These  merry  little  birds  will  break  my  heart.' 
''  He  was  soon  out  of  sight,  perhaps  for  ever.  Jamaica  is 
a  country  which  some  people  of  a  white-brown  complexion  call 
their  mother,  and  the  majority  of  European  visitors  find  their 
grave  !  We  might  get  planted  among  the  sugar-canes,  or  deposited 
in  the  Atlantic.  In  the  folly  of  my  sadness  I  fancied  my  wife,  or 
any  other  man's  wife  similarly  circumstanced,  might  have  perpe- 
trated a  sonnet  on  the  occasion,  somewhat  to  the  following  effect: — 

LINES   AT   PAINTING — TO    FOEDE. 

The  new-fledged  bird  that  leaves  the  mother's  nest 

Heeds  not  the  eje  which  follows  its  first  flight; 
And  little  mindful  of  the  panting  breast, 

Whose  warmth  it  needs  not,  soon  is  out  of  sight. 
The  tiny  warbler  feels  the  new  delight 
Of  freedom  now,  and  flutters  'mid  the  throng 
Of  sprightful  songsters,  while  in  mournful  plight 
The  lonely  mother  chirrups  for  her  young, 
And  makes  that  vain  recall  her  melancholy  song. 

Like  that  poor  bird,  when  thou  art  far  away, 
Thy  mother's  heart  will  pant  for  thee,  my  boy  ! 

And  long  for  thy  return,  when  thou  art  gay 
And  those  around  thee  every  thought  employ  : 
But  time,  nor  change,  nor  distance  can  destroy 

A  mother's  boundless  love,  and  "  none  can  feel 

As  she  feels  for  thee  :" — all-prospective  joy 

Plumes  but  one  hope  in  bidding  thee  farewell. 

]n  thy  young  breast  she  deems  the  seeds  of  virtue  dwell. 

♦  WiUiam  Fordc  Madden,  Dr.  M's  eldest  son,  born  lb2P,  obit  March  29th  1848. 


64  MEMorss 


"  On  tlie  eighth  day  of  our  departure  from  Falmouth  we  were 
in  sight  of  Madeira ;  and  there,  the  morning  being  fine,  and  the 
captain  in  good-order  humour,  an  unfortunate  Jack,  who  had  got 
drunk  at  Falmouth  and  struck  the  gunner  the  day  of  our  embarka- 
tion, was  tied  up,  man-of-war's  fashion,  and  with  all  due  formalities 
flogged.  To  the  best  of  my  judgment,  the  ceremony,  with  all  the 
awful  adjuncts  of  swords,  swabs,  and  cocked  hats,  might  have  been 
dispensed  with,  without  any  disadvantage  to  his  Majesty's  sea- 
service.  Had  the  commander  the  power,  for  this  or  any  similar 
offence,  to  make  the  culprit  do  double  duty,  to  shorten  his  allow- 
ances, and  compel  him  to  wear  a  yellow  jacket  for  a  punishment, 
for  any  period  suitable  to  the  offence,  the  cat,  in  my  opinion,  might 
be  left  with  '  the  gunner's  daughter '  without  any  ill  consequences 
to  the  service. 

"  On  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  our  voyage,  we  landed  at  Bridge- 
town, the  capital  of  Barbadoes.  The  hurricane  of  1831  has  left 
80  many  monuments  of  its  violence  in  every  quarter  of  the  town, 
that  if  a  stranger  were  lauded  here  at  night  he  might  imagine  the 
ruins  -around  him  the  remains  of  some  deserted  city.  The  few- 
standing  trees  along  the  beach  point  out  the  place  where  a  beautiful 
hue  of  cocoa-nut  trees,  a  few  years  ago,  afforded  the  inhabitants  an 
agreeable  promenade.  The  blackened  trunks  are  now  scattered 
over  the  walk  ;  and  where  many  a  comfortable  dwelling  was  lately 
standing,  roofless  buildings  and  shattered  walls  are  only  existing. 
In  some  of  these  houses,  now  in  ruins,  Coleridge  very  probably  may 
have  experienced  that  hospitality  which  he  has  so  well  described  in 
his  admirable  little  work.  The  town,  however,  in  its  best  days, 
could  never  boast  of  much  regularity  or  symmetry  in  its  streets  or 
buildings.  There  is  one  tolerably  open  space,  which  is  called  a 
square,  and  is  ornamented  with  a  statue  of  Nelson.  This  island 
has  been  extolled  for  its  beauty.  I  protest,  without  any  disrespect 
to  the  Barbadians,  who  think  their  country  the  finest  in  the  world, 
I  could  see  no  beauty  there.  Still,  far  be  it  from  me  to  blame  the 
tastes  of  the  Barbadians.  Nature  has  wisely  ordained  that  man 
should  find  the  best  of  countries  always  in  his  own. 

*  *  *  *  ;K  * 

"At  the  time  of  our  embarkation  here,  there  were  a  number  of 
negroes  assembled  at  the  wharf,  audibly  enough  expressing  their 
desires  for  the  arrival  of  the  '  fuss  of  Angus.'  The  negroes  are  not 
slow  in  discovering  who  and  what  all  buckra  strangers  are.  One  of 
the  poor  blackies,  in  front  of  his  companions,  in  the  enthusiasm  of 
his  aspirations  after  liberty,  either  unconscious  of  the  presence  of 
the  white  people  about  him,  or  heedless  of  them,  flung  up  his 
ragged  straw  hat  and  shouted  most  lustily :   'Gar  Amighty  speed 


DR.    11.    R.    MADDEN.  65 


jou,  mj  good  massas  !  Gar  Amighty  sead  us  soon  our  own  King's 
magistrates !  '  (  Here  there  was  an  interruption).  Then  addressing 
one  of  his  comrades  :  '  What  for  you  tell  me,  you  dam  black  teef, 
hold  your  jaw?  King  call  me  his  own  free  subject.  Buciira 
forget  when  fuss  of  Angus  come,  no  dam  black  teef  never  any  more.' 
Poor  blackie  was  premature  in  his  independence  and  impolitic 
in  his  gratitude,  for  the  Ides  of  August  were  not  yet  come,  and  I 
saw  him  reminded  of  that  fact  by  a  slight  punch  in  the  ribs  and  a 
gentle  application  of  the  foot  to  the  gluteal  region,  which  part,  I 
presume,  from  that  intimation,  was  regarded  as  the  seat  of 
memory. 

"I  am,  my  dear  Sir, 

"  Yours  verv  truly, 

-K.   R.   M." 


CHAPTER    XII. 

RESIDENCE    IN    THE    ^\^ST    INDIES. 

In  a  letter  to  Thomas  Moore,  dated  Jamaica,  January  1st  1834, 
Dr.  Madden  thus  continues  the  account  of  his  first  anti-slavery 
voyage  :— 

"  The  last  time  I  had  the  pleasure  of  addressing  you,"  he  says, 
"  I  was  a  halxkim  in  the  Eastern  world  :  the  scene  is  changed 
from  the  Levant  to  the  West  Indies,  and  your  correspondent  is  now 
n  grave  Cadi.  Before  our  arrival  at  Jamaica  we  visited  Barbadoys, 
St.  Vincents,  and  Granada.  St.  Vincents  has  been  called  by  some 
the  Montpellier  of  the  West  Indies  ;  by  others,  the  garden  of 
the  Antilles.  In  my  opinion,  however,  beautiful  as  its  views  are, 
both  of  vale  and  mountain,  Granada  is  its  superior.  Twelve  hours' 
sail  brought  us  from  ]3arbadoes  to  this  island.  The  approach  to 
the  bay  realized  every  idea  I  had  formed  of  West  Indian  scenery. 

From  Granada^  we  resumed  our  voyage  to  Jamaica,  our  first 
impressions  of  which  w^ere  more  favourable  than  was  justified  by 
subsequent  experience.  As  we  approached  Kingston,  on  the  one 
side  was  the  fort  and  remains  of  the  once  proud  and  opulent  city 
of  Port  lloyal,  whence  a  long  strip  of  land  runs  in  an  easterly 
direction  in  towards  the  shore  at  Rock  fort,  enclosing  one  of  the 
tiuest  havens  in  the  world.  On  the  opposite  side  you  have  a  range 
of  undulatmg  country,  with  a  back-ground  of  lofty  mountahis 
clothed  with  luxurious  verdure,  rising  gradually  from  the  verge  of 

0 


66  M  E  M  O I  K  '6 


tbe  shore,  on  whicli  the  citj  of  Kiiig.ston  is  situated.  But,  liiie 
Stamboul,  when  the  traveller  lands  here  the  glory  of  the  prospect 
is  tsoon  forgotten  ;  the  distant  beauty  of  the  various  buildings 
vanishes  before  the  sight  of  streets  without  a  plan,  houses  without 
the  semblance  of  architecture,  lanes  and  alleys  without  cleanliness 
and  convenience ;  the  public  buildings  at  Kingstou  are  commodious, 
and  that  is  all  in  the  way  of  commendation  I  can  say  for  them. 
The  places  of  worship  are  numerous  and  well  attended  ;  there  being 
two  Catholic  and  two  Protestant  churches,  and  several  Baptist  and 
AVesleyan  chapels. 

.  Immediately  after  our  arrival,  we  had  abundant  experiences  of 
the  proverbial  hospitality  of  the  Governor  and  resident  gentry  of  Kings- 
ton, as  well  as  that  of  the  English  merchants  settled  here,  who,  as  in 
every  other  quarter  of  the  world  where  I  have  had  the  j)leasure  of 
meeting  them,  well  sustain  the  honour  and  reputatien  of  their 
country.  In  short,  I  would  recommend  anyone  who  is  not  troubled 
with  dyspepsia,  and  wishes  to  know  what  good  living  is  to  visit 
Jamaica.  It  is  not  only  that  the  dinners  are  excellent,  but  the 
givers  do  the  honours  of  their  tables  with  a  cordiality  of  manner, 
and,  in  a  great  many  instances,  a  refinement  which  make  their 
entertainments  exceedingly  agreeable. 

June  15th  1834. — I  set  out  on  an  excurbion  to  St.  George's  a 
few  days  ago  to  visit  a  beautifully  situated  property  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Annato  Bay.  Our  party  consisted  of  the  proprietor, 
his  lady,  three  slaves,  and  myseLf,  and  though  the  distance  was 
only  thirty- eight  miles,  four  saddle  horses  and  three  baggage  mules 
were  necessary  for  our  cortege.  It  appeared  to  me  a  very  formid- 
able array  of  cavaliers  winding  along  the  narrow  mountain  path 
which  proved  to  be  the  description  of  our  route  the  greater  part  of 
the  journey.  We  passed  by  the  barracks  of  Stoney  Hill,  which 
are  situated  on  an  eminence  about  13 GO  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea,  by  Temple  Hall  estate,  and,  leaving  a  Maroon  town  to  our 
left,  we  arrived  at  Green  Castle,  w^here  we  took  ujd  our  quarters  for 
that  night.  The  cultivation  of  the  estate  has  been  nearly 
abandoned,  though  formerly  one  of  the  most  prosperous  coffee 
plantations  in  that  neighbourhood.  The  house  is  one  of  those 
melancholy  instances  of  a  modern  mansion,  fitted  up  not  only  with 
taste  and  eleg;ince,  but  even  magnificence,  tumbling  into 
decay.  The  parish  of  St.  Mary's  abounds  with  these  desolate 
abodes.  The  house  we  were  in,  and  the  improvements  about 
it,  cost  some  £80,000 ;  and,  Hke  hundreds  of  others,  when 
built,  the  proprietor  began  to  consider  the  means  of  living  in  it. 
We  left  Green  VaUey  for  Claremont  at  daybreak,  where  we 
found  a  princely  mansion  commanding  a  magnificent  prospect,  and 
the  hospitality  of  whose  proprietor  is  no  disparagement  to  the 
character  for  which  Jamaica  is  renowned.      The   dav  after   our 


R.    MADDEN.  67 


arrival  I  left  my  friends  in  Clareniont,  and  set  out  on  an  expedition  in 
quest  of  a  property  which  formerly  belonged  to  a  grand-uncle  of 
mine,  and  on  which  I  had  inherited  a  claim  to  a  considerable 
amount.  Marley,  the  property  in  question,  was  about  seventeen 
miles  distant.  After  a  fatiguing  ride  on  a  broiling  summer's  day  I 
reached  a  small  plantation  in  the  mountains,  where  I  was  informed 
some  of  the  negroes  of  my  uncle  were  then  living,  who  had  been 
lately  purchased  by  a  Mr.  Thomson,  and,  amongst  others,  an  old 
African  negro  who,  upwards  of  forty  years  ago,  had  been  the  favou- 
rite servant  of  my  uncle.  Dr.  Lyons.  I  had  prepared  myself  for  a 
very  sentimental  scene  with  the  old  negro.  I  had  pictured  to  myself 
the  joy  of  the  aged  domestic  at  seeing  a  descendant  of  his  revered 
master.  I  had  anticij^ated  many  affecting  inquiries  after  my 
cousin,  his  young  master,  out  of  whose  hands  the  property  had 
been  sold  in  Chancery  some  ten  years  ago  ;  but  never  was  there  a 
gentleman  of  an  ardent  turn  of  mind  more  cruelly  disappointed. 

The  negro  v/as  brought  before  me  :  he  was  a  hale,  honest-looking, 
gray-headed  old  man,  about  eighty. 

"  Did  he  remember  the  old  doctor?  " 

"  He  remembered  him  well." 

"  AVhere  did  he  come  from  ?  " 

*'  Massa  brought  him  out  of  a  Guinea  ship  when  a  piccauini  boy, 
him  wait  on  massa — serve  massa  very  well ;  him  serve  massa  when 
young  and  'troug;  but  what  use  talk  of  such  things  now?  " 

"  Did  he  see  no  resemblance  between  me  and  the  old  doctor?  " 

"  No  !  him  want  to  see  nutten  at  all  of  nobody." 

The  old  doctor  was  a  brother  of  that  Robert  Lyons,  celebrated 
in  the  annals  of  Irish  litigation,  as  the  lawyer  who  gave  the  first 
brief  to  Curran,  when  that  great  barrister  was  in  want  and  obscurity. 
The  doctor  having  accumulated  considerable  property  in  Jamaica, 
returned  to  his  native  country,  but  only  in  time  to  die  there.  The 
property  in  the  meantime  was  managed  by  my  mother's  brother  ; 
but  at  the  old  gentleman's  death  it  came  into  the  hands  of  his  brother, 
i^.lr.  Theodosius  Lyons.  This  gentleman  died  in  the  course  of  a 
few  years,  at  Spanish  Town.  A  cousin  of  mine,  then  a  minor, 
came  into  the  property.  A  long  career  of  litigation  commenced ; 
one  uncle,  a  Catholic,  the  guardian  appointed  by  the  minor's 
father,  claiming  that  office ;  the  other  uncle,  a  Protestant,  also 
asserting  his  right  to  the  guardianship  on  the  ground  to  the  legal 
preference  a  Protestant  was  entitled  to.  The  decision  of  the 
Chancellor  in  this  case  is  related  at  large  in  Scully's  Penal  Laws  ; 
but  it  will  hardly  be  believed  that  such  a  decision  was  made  within 
the  last  five  and  thirty  years  !  The  Irish  Chancellor  not  only 
decided  the  question  of  the  guardianship  of  the  Catholic  minor, 
but  he  also  decided  on  the  religion  of  the  latter,     A  few  flippant 

6  * 


68  MEMOIRS 


words  from  an  Irish  lawyer  settled  the  matter  that  had  been  at 
issue  between  man  and  man  from  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world. 
With  the  seals  and  mace  before  him,  the  emblems  of  legal  and 
theological  inspiration,  he  decided  that  the  minor's  true  creed 
should  be  that  connected  with  the  State.  A  few  years  later,  in 
1824,  the  estate  again  came  into  Chancery  with  the  inevitable 
result,  namely,  the  ruin  of  the  contending  litigants,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  this  property,  on  which  my  family  had  expended  an  outlay 
of  close  on  £^5,0(^0  :  all  that  remains  for  which  is  a  desolate  house — 
a  heap  of  rains  — and  a  wide  tract  of  waste  land  about  them. 

1  had  two  motives  for  visiting  this  property  :  the  ostensible  one 
was  to  ascertain  if  the  possession  was  worth  the  risk  of  an  appeal 
to  the  Chancellor  for  the  claim  I  had  on  it — a  claim  similar  to  that 
of  the  legatee  I  have  spoken  of ;  but  a  stronger  inducement  was  a 
feeling  of  personal  interest  in  the  condition  of  a  place  which  had 
belonged  for  nearly  half  a  century  to  members  of  my  family.  I 
arrived  at  the  ruined  works  of  Marley  after  a  fatiguing  ride  of  five 
hours  in  the  wildest  district  of  the  St.  Mary's  Mountains.  I  was 
pretty  well  accustomed  to  the  desolate  aspect  of  ancient  ruins  in 
eastern  countries ;  but  I  had  little  idea,  until  I  visited  Jamaica,  of 
that  utter  dreariness  of  scenery  that  has  recently  passed  from  culti- 
Yation  into  the  solitude  of  nature  ;  and  of  modern  structures,  which 
have  but  lately  been  the  busy  haunts  of  life  and  activity,  and  have 
become  as  silent  as  the  grave.  The  dwelling-house  was  situated  on 
an  eminence  above  the  works,  and  faced  by  the  remains  of  an  ex- 
tensive garden,  now  overgrown  with  wild  verdure.  The  negro  huts  at 
some  little  distance  from  the  house  were  uninhabited  and  ruinous, 
and  there  was  no  sign  of  human  life  about  the  place.  ]My  negro 
guide  was  now  very  anxious  to  get  away,  and  said  :  "It  was  no 
good  to  walk  about  such  a  place,  buckras  all  dead,  niggers  all  dead 
too ;  no  one  lives  there  but  duppies  and  obeah  men  "  (i.e.,  ghosts 
and  necromancers).  I  proceeded,  however,  to  the  house,  and  went 
through  the  ceremony  of  knocking,  but  1  received  no  answer,  and 
as  the  door  was  ajar,  I  took  the  liberty  of  walking  into  the  house  of 
my  old  uncle.  The  room  I  entered  was  in  keeping  with  the  ex- 
terior— unfurnished  and  crumbling  into  decay.  I  opened  one  oi 
the  side  doors,  and  to  my  surprise  I  perceived  tw^o  white  women, 
tolerably  well  clad,  and  evidently  much  alarmed  at  my  intrusion.  I 
soon  reassured  them  by  explaining  the  object  of  my  visit,  and  whilst 
so  doing,  two  other  females  and  a  very  old  mulatto  woman  made 
their  appearance ;  and  what  was  my  astonishment  at  learning  that  the 
two  youngest  were  the  natural  daughters  of  Mr.  Gordon,  the  person 
who  purchased  the  property  out  of  Chancery  ;  the  two  others  the 
daughters  of  my  uncle,  Mr.  Theodosius  Lyons,  and  the  old  w)man 
their  mother  !  The  eldest  of  her  daughters  was  about  forty  years 
of  ago,    the  other   probably   a   year   or    two   younger;    and    the 


DB.    E.    E.    MADDEN.  60 


resemblance  of  one  of  them  to  some  members  of  my  family  was 
striking.  The  poor  women,  though  delighted  to  see  a  person 
who  called  himself  a  relation  of  their  lather,  evidently  appre- 
hended that  I  had  come  there  for  the  purpose  of  taking  possession 
of  the  property.  I  do  not  wonder  at  it,  for  they  had  received 
nothing  but  bad  treatment  from  those  who  ought  to  have  been 
land  to  them,  as  well  as  from  strangers,  for  m'any  years  since  the 
death  of  their  natural  protector,  who,  dying  suddenly,  left  them 
utterly  unjorovided  for.  They  were  left  free,  but  that  was  all.  One 
son,  however,  was  not  left  free  ;  and  was  sold  with  the  rest  of  the 
])roperty.  The  aged  and  infirm  negroes  were  then  left  on  the 
estate  ;  but  a  few  years  ago  these  poor  creatures,  who  had  grown 
old  on  the  property,  and  had  expended  the  strength  of  their  young 
days  on  its  cultivation,  and  who  should  have  been  allowed  to  have 
laid  their  bones  where  their  relatives  were  buried,  were  carried  aw^ay 
by  the  creditors  of  Mr.  Lynch,  and  actually  sold  for  a  few  dollars 
a  head. 

Who,  in  the  face  of  such  circumstances  as  these,  will  tell  me 
that  slavery  in  these  colonies  was  productive  of  no  oppression  in 
recent  times,  or  was  the  occasion  of  no  injustice  '?  Where  is  the 
apologist  of  til  at  wretched  system  who  will  maintain  that  the  pro- 
perty is  sacred  which  man  holds  in  his  fellow-men — ay,  in  his  own 
iJesh  and  blood  ?  What  bland  expressions,  what  gentle  language, 
what  inoffensive  terms  must  be  employed  when  the  possibihts  is  to 
be  admitted  of  men  thus  leaving  their  children  in  actual  destitution, 
and  then-  remotest  kindred  perhaps  in  affluence  ? 

A  small  present  in  memory  of  my  relative  to  his  forlorn 
daughters  was  gratefully  accepted  ;  and  having  had  pointed 
out  to  me  the  plantation  where  a  favourite  brother  of  my 
mother's  was  interred,  I  took  my  leave  of  Marley  and  its 
inhabitants,  and  proceeded  to  Derry  plantation,  about  three 
miles  distant.  This  pioperty  had  also  belonged  to  old  Dr.  Lyons. 
He  had  sold  it  to  a  Mr.  Bower,  whose  daughter  I  found  living 
there  ;  I  had  some  difficulty  in  making  out  the  grave  I  was  in  quest 
of — forty  years  is  an  antiquity  in  Jamaica.  At  last  we  discovered 
an  old  negro  who  conducted  us  to  the  place,  where,  putting  his 
stick  on  a  little  mound  on  the  side  of  the  mountain,  he  said — 
"  There  where  him  lay — poor  Massa  Garrett  lay  there !  See 
buckras  plenty  ever  since,  but  no  buckra  like  poor  Massa  Garrett  ; 
him  hab  good  word  foreberybody  ;  black  man  lub  Massa  very  much  ; 
plenty  people  sorry  when  him  die."  ''Poor  Massa  Garrett"  was 
literally  planted  among  sugar-canes.  Shakespeare's  poetical  idea 
of  having  "  violets  spring  from  the  sweet  body  of  Ophelia  "  seemed 
to  me  less  appropriate  imagery  than  that  of  the  sugar-canes 
growing  out  of  the  soil  that  covered  the  remains  of  the  planter. 


70  ME?.roin3 


*  *  :^  >K  H< 

The  climate  of  Jamaica  is  an  insurmountable  obstacle  to  the 
project  for  replacing  negro  labour  by  European  immigration. 
Thus,  of  my  five  colleagues  in  the  special  magistracy,  within 
nine  months  four  had  died  of  inflammatory  attacks  or  yel- 
low fever.  I  believe  that  in  none  of  these  instances  did  the 
disease  run  a  longer  course  than  four  or  five  days.  These  gentle- 
men— Mr.  Musgrave,  Mr.  Everard,  Mr.  Pearson,  and  Mr.  Jerdan — 
were  all  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  in  the  fullest  vigour  of  health. 
Poor  Mr.  Everard  spent  some  days  with  me  only  a  week  before  his 
death,  and  often  boasted  to  me  of  the  excellence  of  his  constitution. 
Musgrave 's  health  and  strength  were  too  vigorous  for  the  climate  ; 
and  perhaps  the  high  and  buoyant  spirits  of  his  poor  friend,  Jerdan, 
caused  him  to  make  too  light  of  the  dangers  that  arise  in  Jamaica 
from  fatigue  and  exposure  to  the  sun.  Mr.  Pearson  I  was  little 
acquainted  with  ;  but  the  others,  whom  I  knew  well,  one  of  whom 
had  been  the  companion  of  my  voyage  fiom  England,  and  was 
esteemed  by  all  who  knew  him,  and  the  last  and  youngest  of  the 
number  who  had  lived  with  me  for  some  months,  and  been  my 
agreeable  companion  in  many  an  excursion  in  the  mountains  of 
Liguanea,  I  most  deeply  lament,  and  sympathize  with  those  con- 
nected with  them. 

If  this  climate  be  thus  deadly  to  European  constitutions,  and 
even  to  those  whose  circumstances  and  position  protected  them 
from  that  exposure  to  hardship  and  temptation  to  intemperance 
that  are  so  inimical  to  the  poorer  classes  of  the  white  population,  it 
needs  no  further  argument  to  prove  that  the  suggested  importation 
of  labourers  from  our  country  will  have  no  other  result  than  a  use- 
less waste  of  life  and  money.  The  importation  of  white  labourers 
has  been  frequently  tried,  and  never  \nih.  success. 


CHAPTER    Xlir. 


CONTEST    WITH    JAMAICAN    SI-AVE    OWNERS. 

The  anti-slavery  opinions  which  Dr.  Madden  maintained,  and  his 
constant  vindication  on  the  magisterial  bench  of  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  the  oppressed  negroes,  necessarily  rendered  him  unpopu- 
lar with  the  slave-owners,  who  could  not  conceive  the  possibility  of 
any  magistrate  administering  impartial  justice  to  black  and  white 
alike,  "  without  fear,  favour,  or  affection."  After  a  short  experience 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  71 

of  the  obstacles  thus  thrown  in  the  way  of  those  who,  hke  himself, 
were  then  engaged  in  the  abohtion  of  slavery,  Dr.  Madden  writes  :  — 

"  This  noble  island  of  Jamaica  is  truly  a  goodly  country,  and 
God  made  it  so  :  but  who  made  the  system  which  mars  its  beauty, 
and  suffers  neither  peace  nor  prosperity  to  flourish  beneath  its 
shade  ?  I  need  not  say.  The  setthng  down  of  angry  passions,  and 
the  dissipation  of  ancient  prejudices,  will  be  a  slow  operation. 
Complexional  distinctions,  probably  for  years  to  come,  will  continue 
to  distract  society  ;  but  now  that  political  privileges  and  civil  advan- 
tages have  ceased  to  belong  to  a  particular  complexion,  the  colour 
of  a  man's  skin  can  no  longer  be  the  criterion  of  his  capacity, 
tliough  the  difference  of  a  shade  may  fit  him  for  society  or  exclude 
hm  from  it;  but  now  it  cannot  put  him  beyond  the  pale  of  the 
J^ritish  Constitution.  Sanguine  as  I  am  about  the  success  of  the 
measure  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  I  cannot  but  fear  that  some 
years  must  elapse  before  the  various  classes  of  this  community 
regard  one  another  as  fellow-citizens  and  fellow-men.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  exertions  of  those  by  whom  the  change  in  a  mischievous 
system  is  to  be  etTected,  will  meet  with  difficulties  at  the  hands  of 
all : — the  ignorance  of  the  negro,  the  arrogance  of  the  brown  man, 
and  the  pride  and  prejudice  of  the  white,  will  continue  for  some 
time  to  baffle  the  endeavour  to  amalgamate  their  interests,  and  to 
remedy  the  evils  of  a  system  which  had  nothing  but  its  age  to 
plead  for  its  iniquity." 

The  duties  of  Dr.  Madden's  official  position  as  a  Special  ]\ragistrate, 
appointed  to  carry  out  the  liberation  of  the  Jamaica  slaves  from 
their  bondage,  were  beset  with  great  difficulties.  On  the  one  ha  id, 
the  planters  were  irritated  beyond  endurance  by  their  class  pre- 
judices, and  by  interference  with  what  they  regarded  as  the 
sacred  rights  of  property,  which,  as  well  as  the  deprivation  of 
accustomed  power,  and  the  controvention  by  the  Imperial  Paiiia- 
ment  of  the  Acts  of  the  Colonial  Legislature,  they  seemed 
determined  to  resist,  and  even  to  avenge. 

Such  was  the  general  tone  of  the  infuriated  planters  of  whom 
the  House  of  Assembly  and  the  Corporation  of  Kingston  was  com- 
posed. These  men  had  the  entire  control  of  the  local  militia  and  of 
the  police  force,  wlio  were  prevented  from  executing  the  decrees  of 
the  Special  Magistrates.  Nor  were  such  incentives  to  resistance  as 
were  freely  expressed  in  the  Jamaica  journals  and  in  the  House  of 
Assembly  without  effect  in  instigating  the  slave-owners  to  avenge 
themselves  by  violence  on  those  by  whom  their  slaves  were  being 
freed.  On  two  occasions,  whilst  in  the  actual  discharge  of  his 
magisterial  duties,  Dr.  Madden  was  thus  assailed.  "The  cir- 
cumstances," he  says,  "  which  led  to  my  resignation  of  the 
office  of  Special  Magistrate  in  Jamaica  were  of  a  nature  that  I 
considered   surrounded  with  too  many  difficulties  to  enable  me  to 


72  MEiJOiP.S 


discharge  my  duties  with  honesty  to  the  intentions  of  the  measure 
under  which  I  was  appointed.  These  circum.stances  I  have  un- 
willingly referred  to ;  and  in  my  anxiety  to  avoid  all  personal  allusions, 
it  is  possible  that  I  may  have  done  injustice  to  the  cause  I  have  at 
heart  b}'^  underrating  the  difficulties  that  I  have  met  with,  and 
indeed  those  of  every  gentleman  who  has  been  similarly  placed 
with  regard  to  his  duties  and  the  opposition  given  to  an  honest 
and  impartial  discharge  of  tliem.  I  found  the  protection  of 
the  negro  incompatible  with  my  own  ;  the  power  of  the  Local 
Assembly,  and  even  that  of  the  Corporation,  were  superior  in  Kingston 
to  that  of  the  Executive,  as,  in  the  imbecility  of  their  arrogance,  they 
dreamt  that  their  privileges  were  paramount  to  those  of  the  Imperial 
Parliament.  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  receiving  a  few  testimonials  on 
my  departure — the  last  from  the  Earl  of  Mulgrave,  since  my  arrival 
in  England  ;  and  as  the  statements  1  have  made  are  of  a  nature  that 
render  every  corroboration  of  them  desirable,  I  have  reluctantly  given 
publicity  to  documents  that  otherwise  I  might  have  considered  only 
personal  to  myself. 

**  From  His  Excellency  the  Marquis  of  Sligo. 

"  The  King's  House,  November  11th,  1834. 

"  My  dear  Sir — It  is  with  much  regret  that  I  have  learned  from 
you  your  unalterable  determination  to  leave  Jamaica,  and  give  up 
your  office  of  Special  Justice.  I  can  assure  you  that  I  shall  deeply 
feel  the  loss  of  your  services  in  this  island,  and  shall  be  ready  on 
all  occasions  to  bear  testimony  to  the  able  and  honest  manner  in 
which  you  have,  to  your  own  detriment,  conducted  yourself  since 
the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  this  island  has  devolved  on  me. 
I  feel  fuUy  your  services,  and  grieve  that  they  have  been  attended 
with  so  much  inconvenience  to  yourself  personally. 

'*  My  dear  Sir,  very  truly  yours, 

"  Sligo." 
"  To  Dr.  Madden,  &c.,  &c." 

"  From  the  Hon.  Sir  Joshua  Rowe,  Chief  Justice. 

"  Kingston,  November  14th,  1834. 

"  My  dear  Sir — I  am  very  sorry  to  find  you  are  determined  to 
leave  Jamaica,  as  I  am  sure  the  island  will  experience  a  great  loss 
by  being  deprived  of  your  zeal  and  assiduity.  Of  your  anxiety  to 
discharge  honestly  and  justly  the  difficult  and  responsilde  duties  of 

a  Special  Magistrate,  I  can  speak  with  confidence 

"  Believe  me,  very  truly  yours, 

"J.  EowK,  C.J." 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  73 


From  Lord  Mulgravo. 
"  Viceregal  Lodge,  Dublin,  June  6th,  1835. 
"  My  dear  Sir —  ....  With  regard  to  your  conduct  in 
Jamaica,  while  I  administered  the  government  of  that  island,  I 
have  great  pleasure  in  stating  that  although,  as  the  Act  for  the 
Abolition  of  Slavery  had  not  come  into  operation  before  my  depar- 
ture for  England,  you  had  not  up  to  that  time  had  an  opportunity 
of  entering  upon  your  duties  as  a  Special  Magistrate,  yet  I  felt  so 
satisfied  of  your  qualifications  for  that  office,  and  of  your  anxious 
desire  to  discharge  its  important  functions  with  strict  impartiahty, 
that,  in  fixing  upon  the  different  stations  for  the  several  Special 
Magistrates,  I  took  care  to  appoint  you  to  a  district  which  I  con- 
sidered to  be  a  very  important  one,  and  likely  to  aftord  an  exten- 
sive field  for  the  exercise  of  magisterial  duties ;  and  I  am  happy  to 
learn  that  the  opinion  I  had  formed  of  you  was  not  disappointed. 
"  Believe  me  to  be,  my  dear  sir,  very  faithfully  yours, 

"  MULGRAVE." 

Dr.  Madden  took  his  departure  from  Jamaica  on  the  15th  of 
November  1834,  on  board  the  Orbit  saihng  vessel,  and  arrived  in 
New  York  after  a  passage  of  twenty-two  days,  on  the  17th  of 
December.  Having  remained  there  for  a  few  weeks  he  proceeded 
to  Canada.  In  another  chapter  an  account  will  be  found  of 
that  journey,  together  with  his  subsequent  experience  of  three  visits 
to  the  United  States  in  1835-3G  and  1839. 

On  the  2nd  of  March  1835,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Madden  left  New 
York,  in  the  American  saihng  packet  Constitution,  a  vessel  whose 
tonnage  (550  tons),  and  rate  of  speed  contrasts  strikingly  with  the 
leviathan  transatlantic  liners  of  the  present  time,  their  voyage  to 
Liverpool,  which  was  a  very  stormy  one,  occupying  no  less  than 
twenty -two  days.  He  arrived  in  Liverpool  on  the  25th  of  March 
1835,  and  proceeded  up  to  London,  where  he  took  up  his  abode  in 
the  chambers  he  had  occupied  in  his  student  days,  in  the  house 
of  Miss  Cape,  7  Panton-square.  Here  he  occupied  himself  with 
the  completion  of  his  Travels  in  the  West  Indies,  in  two  volumes, 
which,  thanks  to  his  energy  and  the  indefatigable  zeal  of 
his  devoted  wife,  by  whom  every  page  was  prepared  for  the 
press,  was  published  within  two  months  after  his  return  to  England. 
This  work  attained  a  considerable  circulation,  l)eing  repubhshed  in 
America  ;  nevertlieless,  it  resulted  in  a  heavy  loss  to  its  author  as, 
owing  to  the  failure  of  his  publisher,  he  was  not  only  deprived  of 
the  sum  agreed  on  for  the  copyright,  but  was  also  called  upon  to 
discharge  the  latter's  liabihties  to  printers,  &c.  This  incident  in 
his  literary  career  elicited  the  following  lines,  written  whilst  the 
author  was  still  smarting  under  the  wrong  he  had  thus  sustained  : — 


74  ?>T  E  ?.r  o  I  n  s 


LINE  S 


On  being  called  on  to  pay  the  accounts  of  a  publisher  who  had  failed 
in  the  author's  debt. 

Should  your  publisher  happen  to  fail, 
I  would  have  you  to  mind  number  one  ; 

For  your  printer  is  sure  to  prevail, 
And  your  author  is  sure  to  be  done. 

Now,  to  share  in  your  publisher's  gains 

Doth  legally  mean,  'tis  believed, 
To  share  in  the  loss  he  sustains 

By  the  profits  you  might  have  received. 

You  will  hear  from  the  printer  unpaid, 
With  astonishment  grave  in  youi-  looks, 

You  're  the  publisher's  partner  in  trade, 
And  a  dealer  and  chapman  in  books. 

It  is  a  hard  case,  I  confess, 
To  be  robbed  of  your  toil  in  this  way  ; 

And  then,  to  console  your  distress. 
Have  the  debts  of  that  robber  to  pay. 

Tho' the  scripture  "  a  blood-shedder  "  calls 

Who  the  labourer  robs  of  his  hire. 
The  brain-stealer  fearlessly  falls 

On  men's  wits  with  rapacity  dire. 

Your  publisher  surely  must  needs 

Be  a  monster  to  prey  on  men's  brains. 

While  your  publisher  is  the  vulture  that  feeds 
On  what's  left  of  the  author's  remains. 

R.  R.  M. 


CHAPTER     XIV. 

ANTI-SLAVERY    WORK    IN    CUBA,    1836-1839. 

Early  in  the  following  year,  Dr.  Madden  was  again  afforded  an 
opportunity  of  assisting  in  the  anti-slavery  movement,  being  offered 
and  accepting  an  important  appointment,  namely,  that  of  Superin- 
tendent of  Liberated  Africans  in  Cuba,  to  which  was  shortly  after- 
wards conjoined  the  appointment  of  Judge  Arbitrator  in  the 
International  Court  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade  at  the 


DR.     R. 


Havana.  The  offer  of  this  position  was  convej^ed  in  the  following 
complimentary  letter  from  Lord  Glenelg,  the  Colonial  Secretary  of 
that  day  : — 

"  Colonial  Office,  3rd  March  1886. 

''  Lord  Glenelg  desires  me  to  inquire  whether  it  will  be  suitable 
to  you  to  accept  the  situation  of  Superintendent  of  Liberated 
Africans  in  the  Island  of  Cuba,  the  residence  to  be  at  the  Havana, 
and  the  salary  £800  a  year  ;  as  it  would  give  him  pleasure  to  recom- 
mend you  to  his  Maiesty  for  the  appointment,  from  a  sense  both  of 
the  public  advantage  and  of  your  merit  and  character." 

On  the  15th  March  1836,  Dr.  Madden,  accompanied  by  his  wife 
and  their  eldest  son,  then  a  boy  nine  years  of  age,  embarked  in 
the  Emerald  sailing  vessel  at  Liverpool  for  New  York  on  his  way  to 
Cuba,  the  scene  of  his  future  official  duties  in  connection  with  the 
suppression  of  the  slave-trade.  During  this  voyage  Dr.  Madden  had 
abundant  opportunity  of  reverting  to  that  profession,  the  lucra- 
tive exercise  of  which  in  London  he  had  abandoned  in  devoting 
himself  to  the  anti- slavery  cause.  Sickness  was  rife  amongst  the 
overcrowded  Irish  passengers  by  whom  the  steerage  cabin  of  the 
emigrant  ship  was  thronged.  One  of  them  died,  and  his  burial  at 
sea  called  forth  the  followinof  lines  : — 


THE    EMTGKANT'S    GEAVE. 


Linee  written  on  witnessing  the  remains  of  an  Irish  emigrant 
consigned  to  the  deep. 

The  foaming  wave's  the  exile's  grave, 

No  burial  rites  beseeming ; 
Nor  book,  nor  bell,  nor  shroud,  nor  shell, 

Nor  eyes  of  sorrow  streaming. 


As  o'er  the  side  the  plank  doth  slide, 
The  corpse  is  seen  descending, 

The  hammock  round  the  body  bound, 
His  comrades  o'er  it  bending. 

And  one  short  prayer  is  uttered  there, 
One  splash  and  all  is  o'er, — 

The  ripple's  gone,  the  burial's  done, 
The  sea  its  dead  doth  cover. 


He'll  sleep  below  as  well  I  trow 
As  if  the  turf  was  o'er  him  ; 

Till  sea  and  laud,  at  God's  command 
Give  up  their  dead  before  Him. 


76  M  EMOTES 


And  tho'  no  friend  hath  seen  his  end, 
Nor  wife  hath  smoothed  his  pillow, 

In  death's  serene  repose,  I  w^een, 
He'll  sleep  beneath  the  billow. 

Yet  far  away,  perhaps  are  they. 
Who  think  he's  now  returning, 

And  yet,  alas  !  long  days  shall  pass, 
And  nights  for  him  in  mourning. 


K.  K.  M. 


After  a  stormy  voyage  of  thirty  days'  duration,  the  Emerald 
reached  New  York  on  the  3rd  of  June  1830.  A  month  later  Dr. 
Madden  re- embarked  on  board  the  Norma,  an  American  ship  for 
Cuba,  and  twenty-five  days  subsequently  landed  in  the  Havana. 
At  that  time,  this  magnificently  situated  city  was  not  only  the 
flourishing  capital  of  the  finest  of  all  the  Spanish  colonies,  but  was 
also  the  chief  commercial  centre  of  the  West  Indian  slave- 
trade,  the  extinction  of  which  was  the  object  of  Dr.  Madden's  mission. 
Here,  for  upwards  of  three  years,  he  continued  to  devote  all  the 
energies  of  his  character  to  the  battle  of  right  against  might,  in 
the  vindication  of  the  cause  of  humanity  and  liberty  which  it  was 
his  privilege  to  maintain  almost  single-handed  with  the  Cuban  slave- 
traders,  then  supported  by  the  Spanish  authorities.  At  the  time  of  Dr. 
Madden's  arrival  in  the  Havana,  the  predominant  evil  influence  of 
the  slave-trade  was  painfully  evinced  not  only  in  the  miserable  con- 
dition of  the  oppressed  negro  race,  but  also  in  the  demoralization  of 
their  masters  and  the  irreparable  evils  thereby  effected  in  the  social 
life  as  well  as  in  the  political  affairs  of  that  fair,  but  ill-governed 
island.  The  long-continued  mismanagement  of  the  greatest  of  her 
dependencies  by  Spain  had  gradually  produced  a  widespread  discon- 
tent on  the  part  of  the  great  bulk  of  the  Cuban  population,  which 
is  thus  referred  to  in  Dr.  Madden's  work  on  The  Island  of  Cuba,  its 
Resources  and  Prospects,  published  in  1849  : — 

"It  is  needless  for  recent  political  writers  of  Cuba  to  deny  the 
existence  of  a  strong  feeling  of  animosity  to  the  mother  country, 
and  a  longing  desire  for  separation.  From  my  own  intimate  know- 
ledge of  these  facts  I  speak  of  their  existence.  If  England  could 
have  been  induced  in  1837  to  guarantee  the  island  of  Cuba  free  from 
the  intervention  of  any  foreign  Power,  the  white  inhabitants  ^veYe 
prepared  to  throw  off  the  Spanish  yoke,  to  undertake  the  bo7ia  fide 
abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  and  to  have  passed  some  measures  for 
the  amelioration  of  slavery.  It  is  no  longer  to  England,  however, 
that  the  white  natives  of  Cuba  look  for  aid  or  countenance  in  any 
future  effort  for  independence :  it  is  to  America  that  they  now  turn 
their  eyes," 


DR.    E.    R     MADDEN.  I't 


SLAVE    SYSTEM    IN    CUBA. 

Tolerably  well  acquainted  with  some  of  the  British  West  Indian 
Islands — with  one  of  them,  hoth  previously  and  subsequently  to  the 
act  of  emancipation — and  having  seen  something  of  slavery  in  many 
eastern  countries,  I  brought  perhaps  some  little  knowledge  of  the 
condition  of  men  held  in  bondage  to  the  subject  which  has  been  the 
object  of  anxious  inquiry  with  me  during  a  residence  of  upwards  of 
three  years  in  a  Spanish  colony  where  slavery  flourishes,  and  where 
upw^ards  of  400,000  human  beings  exist  in  that  condition. 

It  has  been  asserted  in  official  Reports  that  slavery  has 
always  had  wdth  the  Spaniards  a  peculiar  character  of  mildness, 
and  that  it  was  tempered  by  legislative  safeguards  w^hich  in  Cuba 
were  wisely  and  humanely  administered  by  the  legal  tribunals. 
I  freely  grant  that  the  spirit  of  these  laws  and  ordinances  is 
humane,  but  the  great  question  is,  are  such  laws  compatible  with 
the  interests  of  the  slave  owners  ?  Are  they  executed  ?  Unfortu- 
nately they  are  not.  Justice  is  bought  and  sold  in  Cuba  with  as 
much  scandalous  publicity  as  the  Bozal  slaves  are  bought  and  sold 
in  the  barricones..  Is  it  then  to  parchment  justice  or  to  statute- 
book  benevolence  we  are  to  look  for  that  pecuhar  character  of  mild- 
ness w^hich  this  Report  assures  us  is  the  characteristic  of  slavery  in 
Spanish  colonies  ?  But,  in  Cuba,  it  is  not  that  I  have  heard  or 
read  of  the  atrocities  of  Spanish  slavery,  but  I  saw  them  with  my 
own  eyes.  I  lived  for  a  whole  year  at  the  Havana  before  I  could 
so  far  disembarrass  myself  of  that  deadening  influence  of  slavery 
which  steals  so  imperceptibly  over  the  feehngs  of  strangers  in  the 
West  Indies,  as  to  form  an  opinion  for  myself,  and  trust  to  my 
own  senses  alone  for  a  knowledge  of  the  condition  of  the  prsedial 
slaves.  It  was  only  when  I  visited  estates  not  as  a  guest  of  the 
proprietors,  seeking  through  the  eyes  of  my  hospitable  hosts,  think- 
ing as  they  thought,  and  believing  as  they  saw  tit  to  administer  to 
my  credulity  the  customary  after  dinner  dose  of  the  felicity  of  slaves 
i— it  was  only  when  I  went  alone,  unknown,  and  unexpected 
on  their  estates,  that  the  terrible  atrocities  of  Spanish  slavery  as- 
tounded my  senses.  I  have  already  said,  and  I  repeat  the  words, 
so  terrible  were  these  atrocities,  so  murderous  the  system  of  slavery, 
so  transcendent  the  evils  I  witnessed,  over  all  1  had  ever  heard  or 
seen  of  the  rigour  of  slavery  elsewhere,  that  at  first  I  could  hardly 
believe  the  evidence  of  my  senses. 

Instances  have  come  to  my  ow  n  knowledge  of  men  literally  scour- 
ged to  death ,  of  women  torn  from  their  children,  and  separated  from 
them — of  estates  where  an  aged  negro  is  not  to  be  seen — where  the 
females  do  not  form  a  third  part  of  the  population  ;  nay,  of  estates 
where  there  is  not  a  single  female  ;  of  labour  in  the  time  of  crop  on 


^8  MEMOIKS 


the  sugar  properties  being  frequently  twenty  continued  hours,  for 
upwards  of  six  months  in  the  year,  seldom  or  never  under  five,  and 
of  the  general  impression  prevailing  on  this  subject,  and  generally 
acted  on  by  the  proprietors,  that  four  hours'  sleep  is  sufficient  for  a 
slave.  Were  I  to  bring  these  cases  before  the  public,  without  a 
shadow  of  colouring  to  heighten  the  effect  of  the  naked  outline,  so 
frightful  a  detail,  I  am  persuaded,  would  cause  people  to  marvel  that 
such  things  could  be  in  a  Christian  land  — could  occur  in  the  present 
age — could  be  done  by  men  w^ho  moved  in  society,  who  are  tolerated 
in  it,  and  bear  the  name  and  wear  the  garb  of  gentlemen  ;  by 
persons,  in  short,  professing  the  rehgion  of  Christ,  and  daring  to 
couple  the  sanctity  of  that  name  with  rapine,  murder,  and  the 
living  death  of  slavery. 

[We  need  not  here  quote  further  the  account  of  Dr.  Madden's 
prolonged  inquiry  into  the  working  of  the  slave  system  throughout 
Cuba,  the  general  result  of  which  may  be  gathered  from  the  follow- 
ing short  extracts  from  two  poems  of  his  written  in  Cuba.] 


THE    CUBAN    SLAVE-MEECHANT. 


These  naked  wretches,  wasted  as  they  are, 

And  mark'd  with  many  a  recent  wound  and  scar, 

Are  landed  boldly  on  the  coast,  and  soon 

Are  penn'd,  like  cattle,  in  the  barricone  ;* 

Or  ranged  in  line,  are  sold  by  parcel  there, 

Spectres  of  men  !  the  picture  of  despair. 

Their  owner  comes,  "  the  royal  merchant  "  deigns 

To  view  his  chatties,  and  to  count  his  gains. 

To  him  what  boots  it  how  these  slaves  were  made, 

What  wrongs  the  poor  have  suffered  by  his  trade  ! 

To  him  what  boots  it,  if  tlie  sale  is  good. 

How  many  perish'd  in  the  fray  of  blood  ! 

How  many  wretched  beings  in  each  town 

Maim'd  at  the  onslaught,  or  in  flight  cut  down  ; 

How  many  infants  from  the  breast  were  torn, 

And  frenzied  mothers  dragged  away  forlorn  ! 

To  him  what  boots  it  how  the  ship  is  cramm'd  ; 

How  many  hundreds  in  the  hold  are  jamm'd  ; 

How  small  the  space  ;  what  piteous  cries  below  ; 

What  frightful  tumults  in  that  den  of  woe  ; 

What  struggling  hands  in  vain  are  lifted  there  ; 

Or  how  the  lips  are  parch'd  that  move  in  prayer, 

Or  utter  imprecations  wild  and  dread, 

On  all  around,  the  dying  and  the  dead. 

Yet  to  look  down,  my  God,  one  instant  there, 

The  shrieks  and  groans  of  that  live  mass  to  hear  ! 

To  breathe  that  horrid  atmosphere,  and  dwell 

But  for  one  moment  in  that  human  hell ! 

♦  A  kind  of  barracks  ia  vrbich  the  newly-iciported  slavee  are  placed  utttil  they  are  sold. 


i)E,    E.    E.    MADDEN.  fQ 


****** 

It  matters  little,  if  he  sell  the  sound, 

How  many  sick,  that  might  not  sell,  were  drown'd; 

How  many  wretched  creature  piued  away, 

Or  wasted  bodies  made  their  "  plash  "  per  day  ! 

They're  only  negroes  !— True,  they  couut  not  here  ; 

Perhaps  their  cries  and  groans  may  count  elsewhere  ; 

And  Out!  on  High  may  say  for  these  and  all, 

A  price  was  paid,  and  it  redeem'd  from  thrall. 

God  of  all  Ught  and  truth,  in  mercy  cause 

The  men  who  rule  these  lands  to  fear  Thy  laws, 

O'erthrow  oppression,  stalled  in  guilty  state  ; 

Raise  the  poor  stranger,  despoiled  and  desolate  ; 

Reprove  the  despot  and  redeem  the  slave  ; 

For  help  there's  none,  but  Thine  that  here  can  save. 

Thou  who  canst  "  loose  the  fettei'ed  in  due  time," 

Break  down  this  bondage,  yet  forgive  its  crime ; 

Let  truth  and  justice,  fraught  with  mercy  still, 

Prevail  at  last  o'er  every  tyrant's  will. 


THE  CUBAN  SUGAR  ESTATE. 

Here,  with  two  hundred  working  men,  last  year, 
They  boast  they  made  two  thousand  boxes  clear 
Of  first  class  sugar — and  the  boast  in  one 
That  tells  a  tale  of  murder  largely  done. 
What  does  it  matter  here  how  many  lives 
Are  lost  in  labour,  while  the  planter  thrives, 
The  Bozal  market  happily  is  nigh 
And  there  the  planter  finds  a  fresh  supply ! 
^  •;<  * 

We  are  not  always  scourging — by  the  way, 
Tuesday  in  common  is  our  flogging  day  ; 
At  other  times  we  only  use  the  whip 
To  stir  the  drones  and  make  the  young  ones  skip. 
Then  as  to  food,  you  may  be  sure  we  give 
Enough  to  let  the  wretched  creatures  live 
The  diet's  somewhat  slender,  there's  no  doubt. 
It  would  not  do  to  let  them  grow  too  stout. 

;t:  iii  ^ 

Nay,  said  the  speaker  in  a  graver  tone, 

You  seem  to  hear  of  things  but  little  known  ; 

You  think,  no  doubt,  the  IM  ay  oral's  to  blame. 

He  works  the  negroes  thus,  and  his  the  shame, 

How  little  know  ^-ou  of  the  men  who  fill 

This  wretched  office,  and  who  loathe  it  still — 

Men  who  have  felt  oppression's  iron  hand. 

Or  want  has  driven  from  their  native  land, 

And  forced  to  take  this  execrable  place 

To  get  their  bread — in  spite  of  its  disgrace. 

Think  you  for  us  there's  profit 

Wrung  from  the  mortal  agony  and  pain 

Of  sinking  strength,  of  sickness,  and  despair 

We  daily  witness,  and  we  must  not  spare  ? 


Bd  Memoiks 


Think  you  for  us  there's  pleasure  in  the  groans 

Of  mothers  listening  to  the  piteous  moans 

Of  wailing  infants  stretched  before  their  eyes  ; 

They  dare  not  leave  the  hoe  to  hush  those  cries, 

Nor  ask  the  driver  for  a  moment's  rest 

To  soothe  the  child  that's  screaming  for  the  breast  ? 

— Ah,  Senor  Mio  !  briefly  I  replied, 

The  words  you  speak  are  not  to  be  denied  ; 

Too  well  you've  done  the  biddings  of  your  lord 

To  fail  to  be  detested  and  abhorred ; 

Too  much  have  harassed  and  opprest  the  poor 

For  me  to  think  your  system  can  endure. 

Your  fields  are  fak  and  fertile,  I  allow, 

But  no  good  man  can  say — "  God  speed  the  plough." 

There's  wealth  unfailing  in  your  people's  toil ; 

'Twould  wrong  the  poor  to  cry — "  God  bless  the  soil: 

'Twere  asking  blood  to  beg  that  God  would  deign 

"  To  give  the  early  and  the  latter  rain." 

One  prayer  indeed  can  hardly  be  suppressed, — 

God  help  the  slave  !  and  pity  the  oppress'd  ! 


CHAPTER    XV. 

CURAN    LIFE    AND    ANTI-SLAVERY    LABOURS. (CONTINUED). 

Dr.  Madden's  unsparing  exposure  of  the  atrocities  which  were 
daily  brought  officially  under  his  notice  in  connexion  with  slavery 
in  Cuba — necessarily  brought  him  into  conflict  with  the  Spanish 
authorities,  by  whom  that  infam(^us  system  was  connived  at  and 
fostered.  By  them,  therefore,  and  by  the  great  slave  trading  in- 
terest of  the  island,  he  was  assailed  with  an  intensity  of  hatred 
which  had  no  effect  whatever  in  altering  the  line  of  conduct  which 
he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  pursue,  and  in  which  he  was  sustained  by 
the  righteousness  of  his  cause,  as  well  as  by  the  approval  of  the 
Government  by  whom  he  had  been  sent  out  to  Cuba.  Thus,  in 
reply  to  one  of  the  attacks  of  the  Spanish  authorities,  by  whom  his 
removal  was  demanded,  we  find  the  following  letter  from  Viscount 
Palmerston  to  M.  Aguilar,  Spanish  Minister  at  London  : — 

''  Foreign  Office,  15th  May  1837. 
'*  The  undersigned  must  express  his  regret  that  the  zeal  and  per- 
severance in  the  performance  of  a  public  duty,  which  have  obtained 
for  Dr.  Madden  the  approbation  of  his  own  Government,  should 
not  have  equally  secured  him  that  of  the  Government  of  Cuba.  . .  . 
*'  Dr.  Madden  has  given  indisputable  proof  of  that  anxiety  and 
assiduity  in  the  discharge  of  difficult  duties,  without  which  he  would 
not  be  fit  for  the  appointment  he  holds. 

"  (Signed)  Palmerston," 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  81 


At  the  conclusion  of  his  mission  three  years  later,  Lord  John 
Russell,  then  Colonial  Secretary,  signified  his  approval  of  his 
conduct : — 

"  Colonial  Office,  31st  March  1840. 

"  His  Lordship  desires  me  to  inform  you  that  the  opportunity  of 
which  you  have  availed  yourself  proves  how  zealous  and  consistent 
your  efforts  have  been  for  promoting,  under  all  circumstances,  the 
great  object  of  your  mission  in  the  Havana. 

.  *'  (Signed)  R.  Vernon  Smith." 

"  Colonial  Office,  2nd  January  1840. 

*'  His  Lordship  desires  me  to  express  to  you  his  sense  of  the  zeal 
and  ability  with  which  you  have  advocated  the  cause  of  the  negroes 
who  were  brought  in  the  Amistad  to  the  shores  of  the  United 
States. 

**  (Signed)  R.  Vernon  Smith." 

The  circumstances  referred  to  in  the  letter  last  cited,  at  the  time 
of  their  occurrence,  gave  rise  to  some  international  complications, 
and  long  diplomatic  correspondence  between  the  British  American 
and  Spanish  governments.  IMoreover,  the  incidents  alluded  to  are 
in  themselves  of  sufficient  interest  to  deserve  record  in  this  memoir. 


THE    CAPTIVES    OF    THE    AMISTAD. 

Early  in  the  month  of  August  1839,  there  appeared  in  the 
American  newspapers  a  variety  of  accounts  of  a  schooner,  bound 
from  Havana  to  Principe,  in  the  island  of  Cuba,  early  in  July, 
with  about  twenty  white  passengers  and  a  large  number  of  slaves, 
having  been  seized  by  the  slaves  in  the  night  time,  and  the 
passengers  and  crew  all  murdered,  except  two  who  had  made  their 
escape  in  an  open  boat.  About  the  20th  of  the  same  month,  a 
strange  craft  was  seen  repeatedly  on  the  American  coast,  which  was 
believed  to  be  the  captured  Spanish  coaster,  in  the  possession  of  the 
negroes.  The  U.  S.  steamer,  Fulton,  and  several  revenue  cutters 
were  despatched  to  seize  the  so-called  pirate  craft.  In  the  latter  part 
of  August  the  "  mysterious  schooner  "  was  seen  near  the  east  end  of 
Long  Island,  where  a  part  of  the  crew  came  on  shore  lor  water  and 
fresh  provisions,  for  which  they  paid  with  extraordinary  profuseness. 
Shortly  after,  the  vessel  was  seen  by  Captain  Gedney,  U.S.  navy, 
in  command  of  the  brig  Wasldngton,  employed  on  the  coast  survey, 

7 


8^ 


MEMOIRS 


who  despatched  an  officer  to  board  and  carry  her  mto  the  port  of  New 
London.  The  schooner  proved  to  be  the  Amistad,  Captain  Ramon 
Ferrer,  from  Havana,  with  fifty-four  negroes  who  had  been  held  as 
slaves,  and  two  passengers  on  board.  The  Spaniards  said  that  after 
being  out  four  days,  the  negroes  rose  in  the  night  and  killed  the 
captain  and  a  mulatto  cook;  that  the  helmsman  and  anotlier  sailor 
took  to  the  boat  and  escaped  on  shore ;  tliat  the  only  two  Whites  remain- 
ing were  the  said  passengers,  Montes  and  Ruiz,  who  were  confined 
below  until  morning  ;  that  Montes,  who  had  been  a  sea-captain, 
was  required  to  steer  the  ship  for  Africa :  that  he  steered  eastwardly 
in  the  day  time,  because  the  negroes  could  tell  his  course  by  the 
6un,  but  put  the  vessel  about  in  the  night.  They  boxed  about  some 
days  in  the  Bahama  Channel,  and  were  several  times  near  the 
islands,  but  the  negroes  would  not  allow  her  to  enter  any  port.  No 
person  appeared  on  behalf  of  the  Africans,  but  after  this  examina- 
tion ihey  were  committed  for  trial,  and  meanwhile  confined  in  the 
jail  at  Newhaven.  According  to  their  own  account  they  belonged 
to  the  tribe  of  Mendi,  near  Sierra-Leone,  whence  they  were  kid- 
napped by  slave -hunters,  and  after  undergoing  all  the  horrors  of  the 
middle  passage,  were  brought  to  the  Havana  in  a  Portuguese 
trader.  Here  they  were  transferred,  still  in  irons  chained  to  the 
lower  deck,  to  the  Spanish  schooner,  Amistad,  bound  for  Principe,  a 
Cuban  port  some  three  hundred  miles  distant.  On  this  voyage 
they  managed  to  free  themselves  from  their  shackles,  and  making 
one  desperate  effort  to  regain  their  liberty,  overmastered  the  officers 
and  crew,  and  forcing  one  of  the  former  to  take  the  helm,  put  the 
vessel  about,  hoping  to  reach  the  African  coast. 

At  tlie  period  this  intelligence  reached  the  Havana  I  was  a]>out 
to  proceed  to  England  on  leave  of  absence.  But  when  I  ascertained 
that  the  trial  was  about  to  take  place  of  upwards  of  forty  individuals 
charged  with  murder  and  piracy,  as  Cuban  slaves,  whom  I  knew  to 
be  Bozal  Africans  recently  introduced  into  Cuba,  and  therefore 
illegally  held  in  slavery  there — I  determined  to  proceed  to  America 
at  once,  and  give  on  their  trial  the  only  evidence  which  I  supposed 
could  be  procured  for  them,  with  respect  to  that  important  fact.  In 
taking  this  step  I  encountered  some  opposition,  and  assurance  of 
disapproval  of  it,  on  the  part  of  my  superiors,  I  felt,  however,  that 
I  had  a  duty  to  perform,  and  a  right  to  expect  it  would  be 
approved  by  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies.  Li  that 
expectation  I  was  not  disappointed.  Neither  had  I  miscalculated 
the  importance  to  the  defence  of  the  evidence  I  had  to  offer 
on  that  particular  point  to  which  I  have  referred.  On  my  arrival 
in  New  York  I  was  called  on  by  the  lawyers  for  the  prisoners, 
Messrs.  Sedgwick,  to  make  a  deposition  on  the  7th  November 
1839,  whereupon  some  proceedings  respecting  the  forthcoming  trial 
■yvere  to  be  founded.    The  trial  at  Hartford  was  postponed.    Another 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  83 


trial  took  place.  The  prisoners  were  acquitted,  and  eight  months 
after  were  sent  back  to  their  own  country  by  the  friends  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  cause  in  x\merica. 

LIFE      AND      LITEliARY      WORK      IN      CUBA. POEMS      PUBLISHED      AND 

UNPUBLISHED. 

Despite  the  incessant  labours  of  his  Anti-Slavery  occupations  hi  Cuba, 
Dr.  Madden  found  time  for  exploring  the  natural  wonders  of  that  great 
island,  a  large  part  of  the  interior  of  which  to  the  present  time  still 
remains  a  veritable  terra  incoynita  to  European  traveUers.*  These 
journeys  through  the  remote,  sparsely  populated,  and  semi-civihzed 
mountain  districts  of  Cuba,  were  by  no  means  facile  of  performance, 
nor  in  some  instances  by  any  means  void  of  personal  danger.  On 
one  of  these  tours  of  inspection  through  the  slave  estates,  accom- 
panied by  his  wife,  he  arrived  at  nightfcill  at  a  lonely  moun- 
tain "  posada,"  many  miles  distant  from  any  other  habitation. 
Here  they  were  about  to  ahght  when  Mrs.  Madden,  instinctively 
warned  by  something  in  the  aspect  of  the  master  of  the  hostelry 
wlio  invited  them  in,  turned  to  her  husband,  and,  although  naturally 
the  most  docile  of  women,  suddenly  declined  to  descend  from  the 
volante,  and  insisted,  despite  his  entreaties,  *tn  continuing  their 
wearisome  journey  through  the  dark  forest  road.  At  last  they 
reached  a  farm-house  several  miles  distant,  just  as  the  gates  were 
about  being  closed  for  the  night,  after  which,  in  these  regions,  there 
is  no  possibility  of  gaining  admission  until  morning.  Here  they 
remained  for  the  night,  and  before  leaving  learned  that  the  place 
they  had  fortunately  passed  by  had  earned  a  pre-eminently  evil 
repute,  even  in  these  wild  parts,  and  that  many  a  traveller  who  had 
entered  its  portals  had  thence  never  emerged  alive.  Some  months 
afterwards,  the  accuracy  of  the  character  they  thus  received  of  the 
den  of  murder  from  which  they  had  been  rescued  providentially,  was 
too  well  confirmed  by  the  arrest  and  condemnation  of  the  owner  of 
this  "  posada,"  for  the  murder  of  a  traveller  who  there  met  the  fate 
from  which  they  escaped. 

During  his  three  years  residence  in  the  Havana,  Dr.  Madden 
found  in  literary  pursuits  his  chief  solace  from  the  arduous  struggle 
on  behalf  of  the  interests  of  humanity  in  which  his  official  position 
involved  him  with  the  infamous  speculators  in  stolen  men,  and  the 
Spanish  Government,  by  whom  they  were  aided  and  abetted.  In 
addition  to  his  Report  on  the  Island  of  Cuba,  amongst  the  works 
thus  written  in  his  scanty  leisure  hours  were  The  Slave  Merchant 
and  The  Sugar  Estate,  two  poems  of  which  a  few  specimens 
have   been   given  in  a  previous  chapter ;  a  volume  of  Poems  by  a 

*  Vide  Appendix. 


84  MEMOIES 


Cuban  Slave,  translated  from  tlie  Spauisli,  and  published  in  1840  ; 
and  a  smaller  volume  of  original  poetry  of  a  religious  charac- 
ter, entitled  Breathings  of  Prayer  in  Many  Lands,  of  which 
a  small  edition  of  only  twenty  copies  was  printed  in  the  Havana 
in  1838,  for  private  circulation.  Of  his  father's  poetical  abili- 
ties it  would  not  become  the  editor  of  this  biography  to  speak. 
A  sufficient  number  of  his  posthumous  poems  have  however  been 
now  published  to  allow  of  some  judgment  on  their  merits  ;  and 
the  present  writer  has  in  his  possession  three  large  manuscript 
volumes  containing  many  of  Dr.  Madden's  still  unprinted  poems, 
which,  he  ventures  to  think,  should  they  ever  see  the  light,  as 
he  trusts  some  of  them  may  yet  possibly  do,  will  be  found  not 
unworthy  of  publicity.  From  that  hitherto  unknown  Cuban 
volume  of  Breathings  of  Prayer,  may  be  here  cited  three  short 
pieces  as  specimens  of  the  poetic  fervour  of  their  author. 


A    MAY    HYMN. 

Ave  Maria  !  blessed  he  thy  name  ! 

Ave  Maria  !  Holy  ]\Iary  hail ! 
Ave  Maria !  every  voice  proclaim 
That  glorious  greeting — "  Full  of  Grace  ;  "  the  same 

Angelic  strain  in  ev'ry  clime  prevail, 

Ave  Maria!  Holy  Mary  hail! 

Ave  Maria  !  "  iSIother  of  my  Lord," 
The  chosen  temple  of  incarnate  love  I 

Pure  as  the  Angel  who  announced  the  Word  ; 

Bright  as  the  star,  beheld  it  tirst  adored  : 
Fair  as  the  moons  own  mildest  beams  above 
Ave  Maria !  "full  of  grace  "  and  love  ! 

Ave  Maria  !  in  this  vale  of  tears, 

In  time  of  trouble,  in  temptations  sore, 

Thou  art  the  Advocate  the  Saviour  hears  ! 

Oh  !  in  the  hour  of  death  dispel  our  fears  : 
Ave  Maria  !  in  that  trying  hour 
Pray  for  us  sinners  humbly  we  implore. 

Ave  Maria  !  blessed  Queen  of  Heaven  I 

Spouse  of  the  Holy  Spirit  !  hear  our  prayer, 
Thy  Son  is  God,  to  whom  all  power  is  giv'n. 
Star  of  the  Sea !  bright  Angel  lead  us  ev'n 
Before  His  throne,  and  plead  for  mercy  there, 
Ave  Maria  !  Holy  Mary  hear  ! 


M  0  E  N  I  N  G  . 


Another  day  !  and  yet  the  last 
To  thousands  of  my  race — 

To  thousands  who  enjo3'"d  the  past, 
Aiid  now  in  Death's  embrace, 


DR.    R.    E.    MADDEN. 


85 


Who  little  thought  but  yesterday 

To  meet  their  God  !  and  dream'd  not  they 

Of  judgment's  doom  anon, 
And  when  they  rose,  who  had,  like  me, 
Their  plans  laid  out  of  things  to  be, 
And  now  are  dead  and  gone. 

Another  day !  a  blessed  day 

To  souls  aroused  from  sin. 
Who  will  not  throw  its  hours  away, 

But  this  new  day  begin. 
As  if  the  Lord  had  lent  the  time 
In  mercy  to  repent  of  crime, 

The  last  of  proffered  grace  : 
And  if  rejected,  never  more 
To  hope  for  such  another  hour 

Of  goodness  in  its  place. 

Another  day  !  a  new-born  theme 

for  every  creature's  praise 
To  Him,  whose  mercy  seems  to  beam 
In  morning's  brightest  rays. 
Oh  !  never  Lord,  that  morning  dawn, 
My  waking  thoughts  shall  not  be  drawn 

To  Tliy  all  bounteou-  care  : 
Mv  first  remembrance  shall  not  be, 
JMy  God  !  My  Father !  still  of  Thee  ! 
And  my  first  duty — prayer  ! 


NIGHT. 


The  God  who  is  my  guide  by  day, 
My  guard  by  night  will  be. 
In  danger  and  in  darkness  He 

Will  be  rny  shield  and  my  defence  ! 
I'll  lay  me  do^^-n,  and  all  nij  care 
]  11  cast  on  Him  who  heareth  prayer  ; 
The  place  of  rest  no  matter  where, 

Is  not  beyond  His  providence. 

It  matters  not  how  lone  the  spot — 
How  long  the  night— huw  men  may  plot, 
Or  foes  combine,  where  friends  we  not, 

My  God  is  my  security ! 
The  night  as  dark  as  death  may  seem, 
And  not  one  shrouded  star  may  gleam, 
And  evil  things  on  earth  may  teem 

In  night's  profound  obscurity. 

The  fallen  one  may  choose  the  time. 
In  gloom  congenial,  to  beguile 
The  soul  of  man,  by  ev'ry  wile 

Of  hell's  malignant  agency. 
I'll  fear  no  evil !  for  my  trust 
Is  in  my  God,  though  seem  [  muat 
Biit  ashes,  in  His  sight,  and  dust, 

I  will  not  doubt  His  clemency. 


86  MEMOIRS 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

ACCOUNT    OF    THKEE    VISITS    TO    AMERICA,    FROM    1833    TO    1840. 

Having  successfully  accomplished  his  mission  in  America  in  1839, 
on  behalf  of  the  captives  of  the  Amistad,  Dr.  Madden  obtained 
leave  of  absence  from  the  duties  of  his  office  in  the  Havana. 
Before  noticing  his  return  home  to  England  we  must,  however, 
interrupt  the  regular  course  of  this  biography  to  interpolate  from 
manuscript  notes  an  account  of  his  three  visits  to  the  United 
States  (of  which  this  was  the  last),  and  believe  that  these 
observations  will,  even  at  this  distance  of  time,  be  found  of  interest 
to  those  familiar  with  the  present  condition  of  that  great  and  mar- 
vellously progressive  country.  In  the  first  few  paragraphs  of 
this  narrative  of  his  visits  to  America,  some  of  the  incidents 
alluded  to  in  an  earlier  chapter  will  be  found  briefly  recapitulated, — 
Appointed  by  Lord  Stanley  to  be  Special  Magistrate  of  the  Island 
of  Jamaica  preparatory  to  the  Emancipation  Act  coming  into  opera- 
tion on  the  1st  of  August  1834,  I  sailed  from  Falmouth  on  board 
the  government  packet  EclijJse  (Captain  Griffin),  on  the  8th  day  of 
October  1833.  My  fellow  passengers  were  Major  and  Mrs.  McGregor, 
Captain  Everard,  R.M  ;  Mr.  Norcott,  and  Mr.  Coleridge,  also  newly- 
appointed  Stipendiary  Magistrates  for  the  Island  of  Jamaica.  We 
arrived  at  Kingston,  Jamaica,  on  the  8th  of  November  1833,  after 
a  voyage  of  thirty-three  days.  Subsequently  I  was  sworn  in  before 
the  Mayor  of  Kingston,  and  appointed  by  Lord  Mulgrave,  the 
Governor  of  the  Island,  to  St.  Andrew's,  but  was  afterwards 
removed  to  Kingston,  the  most  important  district  in  the  Island. 
Was  present  at  Spanish  Town  the  1st  of  August,  having  accompanied 
Lady  Mulgrave  to  the  House  of  Assembly  when  Lord  Mulgrave 
pronounced  the  celebrated  declaration  of  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  of  that  island,  as  well  as  of  all  the  Ihitish  islands  in  the 
West  Indies.  To  have  witnessed  the  memorable  event  of  negro 
emancipation  in  the  West  Indies ;  to  have  taken  a  part  in  the  pre- 
paratory and  the  succeeding  proceedings  for  successfully  carrying 
into  effect  that  great  measure,  can  never  fail  to  be  a  source  of  pride 
and  satisfaction  to  me.  After  that  remarkable  event  in  our  Colonial 
history,  I  remained  in  Jamaica  until  the  month  of  November 
1834,  when  I  resigned  my  office  there.  On  the  loth  of  that  month 
I  embarked  at  Kingston  for  New  York,  on  board  the  American 
packet  Orbit,  Captain  Mead.  The  best  view  of  Jamaica,  and  by 
far  the  most  exhilarating,  is  decidedly  the  last.  On  the  18th  of 
November  we  were  abreast  of  Cuba.     On  the  19th  we  proceeded 


DE.    R.    R.    MADDEN. 


through  the  windward  passage,  hauled  close  along  the  western  ex- 
tremity of  St.  Domingo  ;  passed  Cape  Kicholas  on  the  21st, 
Heneaga  on  the  22nd,  Cayco  on  the  23rd,  and  Turks  Island,  Cape 
Mayaguago  on  the  25th,  off  Att wood's  Island,  about  forty  miles  to 
eastward  of  the  Bahama's,  where  Columbus  first  landed. 

On  December  the  6th,  the  highlands  close  to  New  York  were  seen, 
and  the  light  off  Sandy  Hook  the  same  night.  We  were  only 
fifteen  miles  off  the  coast  when  the  southwest  wind  all  at  once 
began  to  blow  a  hard  gale,  which  increased  in  violence  towards 
nightfall,  and  drove  us  to  sea  upwards  of  a  hundred  miles 
off  the  coast.  During  the  voyage  I  took  from  the  ship's  log  books 
an  account  of  all  the  passages  The  Orbit  had  made  to  and  from 
America  and  the  West  Indies.  The  average  duration  was  twenty 
days  from  the  latter,  and  from  the  United  States  twenty -four  days. 
The  passage,  however,  has  been  accomplished  in  twelve  days : 
the  distance  being  1,500  miles,  and  the  passage  money  a  hundred 
dollars.  On  the  8th  of  December  1834,  we  arrived  in  New  York,  and 
received  a  pressing  invitation  to  take  up  our  abode  in  the  house  of 
our  fellow  passenger,  Mr.  Seymour,  a  gentleman  of  comic  powers 
of  no  ordinary  merit,  wliich  had  gained  for  him  the  designation  of 
the  American  Mathews.  JMy  wife  and  myself  accepted  his  hospi- 
table invitation  and  passed  some  agreeable  days  with  him.  We 
then  became  inmates  of  a  well-known  boardhig-house  kept  l^y  Mrs. 
Green,  at  the  rate  of  six:  dollars  each  day,  thirty  shillings  each  for 
board  and  lodging.  I  remained  in  the  United  States  upwards  of 
two  months.  After  spending  a  week  in  New  York,  I  left  my  wife 
there  and  made  a  tour  to  tlie  southward,  visiting  Pennsylvania,  Mary- 
land, New  Jersey,  Virginia,  the  district  of  Columbia,  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore,  and  Washington. 

On  Sunday  afternoon,  the  22nd  December  1834, 1  attended  service 
at  the  church  of  the  negroes  in  Anthony-street.  All  the  persons 
present,  with  the  exception  of  myself  and  the  minister,  a  Mr. 
Bentley,  were  negroes  or  mulattos.  The  people  of  colour  are  ex- 
cluded from  all  places  of  worship  in  New  York,  except,  as  I  am 
proud  to  say,  the  Roman  Catholic  churches.  I  had  experience 
myself  on  the  occasion  now  referred  to  that  it  is  by  no  means 
safe  for  a  white  man  to  be  seen  in  one  of  the  places  of  worship 
set  apart  for  negroes.  I  happened  to  be  accompanied  from  my 
boarding-house  by  a  very  respectable  man  of  colour,  to  whom  I  had 
a  letter  of  introduction  from  Jamaica.  As  I  walked  along  I  observed 
people  turning  back,  staring,  and  murmuring,  but  I  took  no  notice 
of  them,  and  entered  the  church  of  the  banned  race.  When  service 
was  over,  and  the  congregation,  consisting  of  about  two  hundred 
well-dressed  people  of  colour  of  both  sexes,  came  out,  I  no  sooner 
made  my  appearance  than  I  Avas  assailed  by  a  mob  of  fifty  or 
sixty   persons,    with   cries    of  '' No  amalgamation;"  "No   Aboli- 


88  MEMOXRS 


tionists ;  "  Down  with  all  incendiary  friends  of  niggers,  &c.,  &c." 
I  treated  this  brutal  conduct  with  laughter,  which  certainly 
was  not  expressive  of  my  feelings,  for  these  were  indeed  of  such 
j^rofound  contempt  as  banished  all  sense  of  fear  ;  but  I  did  not  feel 
by  any  means  at  my  ease  for  the  safety  of  the  poor  man  who  was 
with  me,  and  I  made  him  remain  with  me  till  the  mob  dispersed. 

I  am  sorry  to  have  to  say  that  tbe  sermon  that  was  preached  in 
this  "  Nigger  Church,"  as  it  was  contemptuously  called,  was  sadly 
mixed  up  with  as  virulent  abuse  of  the  doctrines  and  Church  of 
Rome  as  was  ever  delivered  even  m  an  Irish  Protestant  church, 
and  that  is  saying  a  great  deal.  Nemesis  must  take  a  special 
delight  in  watching  over  the  destiny  of  the  Institution  of  Slavery. 
The  slaves  are  not  more  degraded  and  debased  by  it  than  their 
masters,  and,  strange  to  say,  the  inhabitants  of  the  free  States 
of  the  North  in  which  slavery  has  been  abohshed,  detest  the  people 
of  colour  and  their  descendents,  who  now  are  free,  with  a  degree  of 
rancorous  animosity  that  is  almost  incredible.  Though  slavery  has 
been  done  away  with  in  the  State  of  New  York,  still  negroes  are  not 
suffered  to  associate  with  white  people,  to  eat  or  drink  or  travel  with 
them,  or  even  to  sit  side  by  side  in  the  same  church  or  theatre : 
and,  in  short,  are  treated  in  the  public  streets  and  in  aU  places  of 
resort  witli  insolent  contumely  and  frequently  with  brutal  violence. 


THE    MEDICAL    PROFESSION    IN    NEW    YORK. 

The  New  York  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  Barclay- 
street,  which  I  visited,  accompanied  by  President  Duer  of  the 
University,  was  founded  in  1807.  The  number  of  students  in  the 
year  preceding  my  visit  in  183 1  was  one  hundred  and  sixty.  The 
expense  of  attendance  on  the  necessary  medical  courses  for  three 
winter  courses  is  three  hundred  and  fifteen  dollars,  and  fee  on  gradua- 
tion twenty-five  dollars.  The  principal  surgeon  in  New  York  is 
Dr.  Valentine  Motte  ;  another  eminent  surgeon  is  Mr.  Bushe,  an 
Irishman  of  great  skill  and  large  practice,  who  has  been  eight  years 
in  New  York.  I  heard  Dr.  Motte  lecture  on  surgery.  There  was 
a  good  class  of  about  one  hundred  students,  attentive  young  men, 
far  more  orderly  than  medical  students  usually  are  in  England  or 
Ireland.  The  most  enlightened  men  in  New  York,  or  indeed  in 
any  part  of  America  I  visited,  were  members  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession. Those  I  met  with  would  certainly  well  bear  comparison 
with  the  medical  men  of  any  European  country.  I  met  nearly  all 
the  eminent  men  of  the  profession  at  a  party  given  by  Dr.  Delafield 
on  the  occasion  of  the  marriage  of  Dr.  Wilkes.  This  gentleman 
was  the  grand-nephew  of  the  famous  John  Wilkes  of  notoriety  in 


DE.    E.    R.    MADDEN.  80 


London  last  century,  and  his  father  was  a  highly  respected  medical 
practitioner  in  New  York. 

At  a  conversazione  given  in  New  York  in  January  1835,  by  the 
President  of  the  College  of  Physicians,  I  met  Dr.  Watson,  of  Spa 
Fields  celebrity  in  1817,  connected  with  the  Cato-street  conspiracy, 
who  contrived  to  escape  the  fate  of  Thistlewood  and  his  other 
associates  by  flight  to  America.  The  President  pointed  out  to  me 
a  good-looking,  middle  aged  gentleman  of  a  thoughtful  aspect : 
"  Observe,"  he  said,  "  that  gentleman.  He  is  a  physician  from  the 
old  country  practising  here,  not  very  extensively,  but  sufficiently  to 
enable  him  to  live  respectably.  He  was  engaged  in  politics  in  his 
own  country,  but  he  has  the  good  sense  to  abstain  from  all  political 
agitations  here.  He  is  a  well-ordered  man  of  good  conduct,  unob- 
trusive and  retiring  in  his  habits.  Now  let  me  ask  you,"  continued 
the  President,  "  do  you  think  the  imperial  interests  of  the  old 
country,  or  those  of  society  there,  have  suffered  any  injury  by  Dr. 
Watson  not  having  been  hanged,  as  he  assuredly  would  have  been 
if  he  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  Lord  Castlereagh  and  his  col- 
leagues ?  "  *'  I  have  always,"  I  replied,  "agreed  in  the  opinion  which 
an  Enghsh  writer  has  well  expressed,  viz.  :  '  that  the  worst  account 
you  can  turn  a  man  to  is  putting  him  to  death.'  It  neither  serves 
the  man,  the  State,  nor  the  society  he  belongs  to,  to  strangle 
him  like  a  dog  or  to  butcher  him  by  chopping  off  his  head  for  com- 
mitting high  treason.  Some  day,  and  the  sooner  the  better,  the 
world  will,  I  trust,  discover  that  hanging  criminals  has  no  effect 
in  deterring  others  from  crime,  and  that  society  is  not  really 
served  by  visiting  offences,  however  atrocious,  by  capital  punishment, 
which  seems  to  me  to  be  inflicted  more  for  the  gratification  of  our 
own  feelings  of  resentment  or  of  fear  than  for  its  protection." 

In  reference  to  the  peculiar  influence  of  the  climate  of  North 
America  on  the  growth  and  development  of  tlie  human  body,  Dr. 
Smith  said  : — "  The  tendency  of  human  growth  in  America,  amongst 
the  white  races  at  least,  is  to  shoot  upwards.  TaU  men  are  much 
more  common  in  America  than  in  England.  Fat  men,  and  those 
of  much  muscular  and  glandular  development,  are  much  less  fre- 
quent here  than  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  glanduLir 
system  of  females  especially  is  unfavourably  influenced  by  our 
cHmate.  Beautiful  faces  in  the  very  young,  and  up  to  the  age  of 
twenty-five,  are  common  enough,  but  fine  busts,  large  hips,  and 
round  limbs,  are  very  rarely  met  with.  The  pallor  of  the  complexion 
of  women  in  this  country  is  another  striking  peculiarity,  and  in  every 
respect  they  appear  to  be  influenced  more  by  the  climate  of  this 
country  than  men.  Moreover,  they  fade  sooner,  and  more  suddenly 
than  the  women  of  any  European  country.  The  flower  of  their  beauty 
has  great  loveliness  and  fragrance  while  it  lasts,  but  it  lives  and 
flourishes  for  too  short  a  time," 


90  MEMOIRS 


I  visited  the  Historical  Society  Library  in  New  York,  in  the  same 
house  as  the  Lyceum,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Duer  and  Dr.  Francis, 
and  saw  there  some  very  vahiable  historical  documents — the  manu- 
script journals  of  the  English  House  of  Commons  from  1650  to 
1658,  comprising  Parliamentary  records  of  the  most  eventful  period 
of  Cromwell's  career.  No  copy  of  these,  it  is  stated,  exists 
in  England.  In  the  library  of  the  Historical  Society  there  is  a 
cast  from  a  masque,  taken  after  death,  of  the  too  well-known 
Thomas  Paine.  The  forehead  is  that  of  a  badly  constituted  intel- 
lect— the  physiognomy  is  brutal  and  sneering,  with  strong  traits  of 
sensuality.  The  eyes  must  have  been  small ;  the  nose  is  hooked, 
large  and  fleshy,  a  sort  of  condor's  beak  overhanging  a  villainously 
animal  mouth. 


THEATKICAL,    LITERARY,    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE    IN    NEW    YORK. 

New  York  theatricals  are  not  in  a  very  flourishing  condition. 
There  is  little  taste  for  what  is  called  in  England  the  legitimate 
drama.  Extravaganza,  melodramatic  pieces,  and  ludicrous  burlesque 
comedies  take  the  public  taste.  I  have  on  several  occasions 
observed  in  New  Y^'ork  theatres  that  comic  acting,  which  is  considered 
of  first  rate  excellence  in  England,  and  which  never  fails  to  amuse 
English  audiences,  is  not  much  appreciated  in  America.  I  saw 
Sheridan  Knowles  play  in  the  "  Hunchback  "  to  a  good  house  and  he 
was  simply  endured  ;  but  had  reason  to  be  content  that  he  was  not 
yawned  down,  as  I  have  seen  far  better  English  actors  in  American 
theatres.  There  was  nothing,  however,  in  the  dress  or  dances 
on  the  stage  or  in  the  demeanour  of  the  audience  for  the 
delicate  susceptibilities  and  refinement  of  a  Mrs.  Trollope  to  feel 
hurt  at.  In  the  Bowery  Theatre,  where  no  ladies  of  any  re- 
spectable pretensions  are  to  be  seen,  the  rage  at  the  time  of  my 
visit  was  the  celebrated  Mr.  Rice,  the  original  "  Jim  Crow."  I 
had  to  endure  seven  encores  of  the  eternal  "Jim  Crow"  song 
and  dance  in  one  evening.  The  plays  I  saw  performed  at  this 
theatre  were  vulgar  and  stupid.  Nevertheless  they  pleased  the 
audience. 

Whilst  in  New  Y^ork  I  made  the. acquaintance  of  several  of  the 
leadiiigjournalistsof  the  city,  gentlemen  whose  high  literary  culture 
and  ability  would  have  reflected  honour  on  the  press  of  any  country. 
Others  of  a  different  grade  and  caliltre  were  however  to  be  also 
met  with,  and  unfortunately  it  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the 
influence  of  even  these  misrepresentatives  of  the  fourth  estate 
in  the  American  Republic,  who  think,  talk,  write  and  act  like  men 
of  a  privileged  order.  The  most  insuperably  pen-proud,  thin-skinned, 


DR.    K.    R.    MADDEN.  91 


and  swaggering  of  all  this  class  is  the  redoubtable  Colonel  Webb,  the 
editor  of  the  New  York  Courier.  This  gentleman  devotes  his 
talents  to  artistic  and  theatrical  criticism.  He  does  the  drama 
— and  the  players  as  well  as  the  plays — and  takes  them  un- 
der the  sole  and  exclusive  tyranny  of  his  protection.  A  few 
weeks  ago  Mrs.  Wood  having  unhappily  offended  this  great 
Jupiter  Tonans  of  the  Press,  the  Colonel  put  forth  his  thunder  in 
the  shape  of  a  fulminatory  leader  denouncing  the  Woods,  and  call- 
ing on  the  mob  to  repair  that  night  to  the  Park  Theatre  and  drive 
the  vagabond  strangers  from  the  boards.  The  gallant  Colonel 
attended  the  theatre,  was  cheered  by  his  rabble,  saw  a  defenceless 
actress  hooted  from  the  stage  ;  but  he  had  not  the  gratification  of 
seeing  the  house  torn  down,  because  the  manager,  terrified  into  sub- 
mission to  the  vox  populi,  announced  that  the  Woods  had  been 
dismissed,  and  never  should  appear  again  before  them. 

The  ill-influence  of  newspaper  literature  of  the  class  j  ust  referred 
to  on  the  expression  of  public  opinion  in  America  is  occasionally 
very  remarkable.  Thus  in  two  of  the  daily  papers  of  that  time,  the 
following  choice  compliments  were  exchanged.  The  editor  of  the 
Hartford  Review  called  one  of  the  fraternity  in  that  city  "  a  scoundrel, 
a  liar,  and  a  vagabond  !  "  and  he  of  the  North  River  Times  thus 
apologized  for  not  noticing  the  attacks  of  the  Jeffersonian  upon  his 
paper : — "  The  very  character  of  the  miserable  poltroon  who  conducts 
this  sheet  is  sufficient  cailse  for  our  silence.  To  say  the  least,  he 
is  but  one  shade  removed  from  a  bull-frog,  either  in  intellect  or 
appearance.  A  lazy,  lounging,  lousy,  lying  loafer,  who  has  neither 
brains  to  conceive,  nor  heart  to  feel — a  mere  lump  of  shapeless  and 
almost  hfeless  flesh,  which,  like  a  go-cart,  will  move  just  where 
some  propelling  power  directs." 

In  June  183(),  I  met  in  New  York  Colonel  McCarthy,  who 
fought  his  cousin  with  muskets,  muzzle  to  muzzle,  after  proposing 
to  be  placed  on  a  barrel  of  gunpowder  and  his  antagonist  on  another 
and  then  to  blow  each  other  up.  The  former  killed  his  antagonist 
on  the  spot.  How  he  escaped  is  wonderful.  I  saw  him  parading 
Broadway,  attracting  the  public  attention  by  the  singulaiity  of  his 
appearance,  his  hair  hanging  down  in  long  flowing  curls  over  his  neck. 
This  detestable  fashion  of  courting  notoriety  on  the  part  of  men 
who  have  signalized  themselves  by  some  desperate  action  or  atrocious 
savagery  was  at  that  time  commonly  tolerated  in  America.  Within 
a  week  I  noticed  two  of  these  honourable  murderers  starring  it 
in  Broadway,  evidently  much  to  their  own  satisfaction  and  the 
admiration  of  the  public.  A  few  nights  afterwards  I  was  pointed  out  a 
young  man  carousing  in  \\'indhert's  tavern,  who  had  shot  a  gentle- 
man dead  in  the  room  where  he  was  then  drinking. 

o 

Among  persons  remarkable,  either  on  account  of  their  own 
position,    talents,    and   acquirements,   or   their  celebrity  in    other 


MEMOIRS 


countries,  wliom  I  have  met  in  New  York,  I  may  mention  a 
daughter  of  Ladj  Edward  Fitzgerald  by  her  second  marriage  in 
Holland  with  Mr.  Pilcain,  an  American  Consul  in  that  country  ; 
Sheridan  Knowles,  who  was  then  playing  at  the  Bowery ;  Clara 
Fisher,  Miss  Jarman,  Mr.  Booth,  and  Charles  Mathews.  Among 
American  literary  and  scientific  men  I  may  mention  Mr.  Bryant, 
Dr.  Channing,  Judge  Emmett,  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  his 
])rother,  Thomas  Emmett,  the  distinguished  sons  of  Thomas  Addis 
Emmett ;  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Ai'thur  Tappan,  Hallett,  Wilhs, 
Mr.  President  Duer,  Dr.  Motte,  Dr.  Bushe.  In  various  other  cate- 
gories, were  Mrs.  Betterton,  widow  of  an  English  actor  of  that  name, 
the  father  of  Mrs.  Glover,  the  celebrated  actress.  (Mrs.  Betterton  I 
found  in  the  poor  house  of  New  York,  her  husband  had  died  in  London 
in  the  house  of  Mrs.  Glover  in  his  83rd  year).  Jack  Downing,  Colonel 
Webb,  and  Captain  Kiley,  the  African  traveller.  'J'he  latter  was  an 
American  mariner,  who  had  been  shipwrecked  on  the  W^est  Coast  of 
Africa  in  1815,  had  been  made  captive,  carried  into  the  interior  to 
Timbuctoo  and  dealt  with  as  a  slave,  and,  finally,  after  incredible 
sufferings,  had  succeeded  in  effecting  his  liberation,  a  mere  skeleton 
weighing  less  than  ninety-eight  pounds,  as  he  asserts  in  a  narrative 
of  his  sufferings,  published  in  London  some  years  ago. 

VISIT    TO    WASHINGTON. 

I  SET  out  from  New  York  to  Washington  on  the  22nd  January 
1835,  and  proceeded  by  steamboat  to  Albany,  where  I  went  by  rail- 
way to  Philadelphia,  a  journey  of  sixty  miles.  Philadelphia  is  a 
fine  old-fashioned,  somewhat  sombre-looking  town,  with  several 
public  buildings  of  a  striking  kind.  There  are  many  old  families 
of  the  best  class  of  society  long  established  here,  and  the  social 
atmosphere  is  more  like  that  of  Cheltenham  or  St.  Leonard's 
than  that  of  any  American  town  I  visited.  Joseph  Bonaparte 
was  then  residing  in  the  vicinity  of  this  place,  and  Fanny 
Kemble,  married  to  Pierce  Butler,  an  American  gentleman  of 
Irish  extraction,  was  also  living  six  miles  from  the  city.  From 
Philadelphia  I  proceeded  to  Baltimore,  a  journey  of  one  hun- 
dred and  six  miles  over  execrable  roads,  in  fifteen  hours,  for  ten 
dollars.  From  Baltimore  to  Washington,  a  distance  of  thirty-six 
miles,  I  paid  three  dollars.  At  Washington  I  stopped  at  (Jadsey's 
celebrated  monster  Hotel,  the  charge  for  board  and  lodging  being 
two  dollars  and  a  half  a  day.  I  sat  down  to  dinner  with  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  persons,  including  several  members  of  Congress, 
all  dispatching  with  marvellous  quickness  an  extraordinary  con- 
glomeration of  viands  of  various  kinds  on  the  same  plate.  The 
silence  was  awful  in  the  way  of  tallying,  but  the  clatter  of  plates, 
knives  and  forks  was  stunning.     I  do  not  think  that  any  European 


BE.    E.    E.    M-LDDEN.  93 


people  give  their  stomaclis  so  much  undue  work  as  the  Americans. 
The  etfects  of  this  holting  custom  are  to  a  medical  man  exceedingly 
obvious  in  the  suffused  sallow  complexion  of  too  many  of  the  men, 
though  in  these  cases  the  tobacco  chewing  custom  no  doubt  has 
also  much  to  say  to  their  cachectic  appearance. 

The  capitol  of  Washington,  is  a  noble  building  of  white  marble, 
admirably  situated  in  the  centre  of  converging  avenues,  and  in 
internal  decoration  as  well  as  in  external  aspect,  is  in  every  respect 
worthy  of  the  country  of  whose  sovereign  legislature  it  is  the 
seat.  No  less  imposing  are  the  splendid  buildings  of  the  War  and 
Treasury  Offices  and  of  other  State  Departments.  The  beau-ideal 
of  American  architecture  is — vastness.  And  it  must  be  admitted 
that  there  are  many  structures  in  Washington  and  New  York  more 
striking  for  their  spaciousness  than  for  architectural  beauty  of  effect. 
Washington  is  the  most  remarkable  city  I  have  ever  seen  for  the 
enormous  intervals  between  blocks  of  buildings ;  this  is  very  conspicu- 
ous in  the  principal  street  in  the  city,  which  is  more  than  one 
half  as  wide  agahi  as  Sackville-street,  Dubhn.  The  Americans  pride 
themselves  greatly  on  the  unparalleled  breadth  of  this  avenue.  Their 
architects  and  surveyors  seem,  however,  to  have  no  adequate  idea  of 
the  limited  nature  of  the  locomotive  organs  of  human  beings, 
building  public  edifices  and  laying  out  streets  that  might  be  in- 
tended for  Patagonian  giant  races. 

At  the  table  d'hote  at  Gadsey's  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  several 
well-informed  and  very  agreeable  people,  as  well  as  of  some  disagree- 
able, disputatious  folks — men  to  whom  it  is  a  pleasure  to  wrangle 
and  jangle.  One  of  these  gladiatorial  recreations  at  the  table  d'hote 
a  day  or  two  ago  before  my  arrival  had  led  to  a  duel.  There  was  a 
little  conversation  about  it,  but  very  httle,  notwithstanding  that 
one  of  the  combatants  on  this  occasion  was  shot  through  the  body.  I 
had  a  dispute  myself,  although  fortunately  of  a  less  tragic  character, 
at  dinner  with  one  young  man  who  certainly  manifested  his 
dislike  to  the  old  country  and  everyone  connected  wdth  it  in 
unmistakable  terms.  On  Sunday  morning  I  found  a  good  many 
gentlemen  congregated  in  the  bar  of  the  hotel,  with  their  backs 
to  the  stove.  A  member  of  Congress  pulled  a  letter  out  of  his 
pocket  and  said :  "  This  damned  letter  will  be  the  death  of 
me.  I've  been  sent  all  wrong  from  post  to  pillar,  back'ard  and 
forreds,  all  the  morning,  going  from  Pontius  to  Pilate,  and  from 
Pilate  to  Pontius,  and  never  found  the  right  man  after  all.  This 
gait  of  going  wont  do  for  me,  I  guess."  Another  gentleman  asked 
a  tall,  gaunt  component  part  of  the  collective  wisdom  of  the  Senate, 
"had  he  been  to  Chun-h?"  "  No  sir,"  he  rephed,  "when  I  am 
at  home  I  go  to  Church  at  the  head  of  my  family,  but  when  I 
am  away  I  make  a  scruple  of  imposing  on  strangers,  so  I  don't  go." 

While  I  was  in  Washington  in  January  and  February  18iJ5,  I 


94  MEMOIRS 


frequently  visited  tlie  House  of  Representatives,  the  proceedings  of 
which,  as  far  as  decorum,  order,  and  gravity  of  deportment  were 
concerned,  appeared  to  me  to  have  the  advantage  of  those  of  the 
Enghsh  House  of  Commons.  There  was  a  question  of  impor- 
tance under  discussion  during  several  days  of  my  sojourn 
there — that  of  the  Post  Olfice  Administration.  In  this  debate 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  hearmg  some  of  the  most  eminent  American 
orators  of  the  day  —  Clay,  Webster,  Calhoun,  King,  Clayton, 
Benton,  Preston,  and  Van  Buren. 


WASHINGTON  S    TOMB. 

One  of  my  principal  reasons  for  going  to  Washington  was  to 
make  a  pilgrimage  to  the  tomb  of  the  founder  of  the  great 
Republic  of  America.  Of  all  modern  heroes,  George  Washington 
was  ever  regarded  by  me  with  the  most  sincere  admiration  of  his 
noble  qualities,  considered  in  the  aggregate.  But  great  as  my  ad- 
miration for  him  was,  still,  as  an  Abolitionist,  I  am  very  sensible  of 
one  misdeed  of  his  against  humanity  and  justice,  viz.  : — his 
making  no  effort  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  career  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United  States.  I  was  led  to  the 
tomb  of  Washington  by  a  quondam  slave  of  his  widow,  who 
survived  her  husband  only  ten  months,  leaving  no  children. 
(Washington,  Jefferson,  at)d  Jackson  were  all  childless  Presidents). 
The  old  man  who  conducted  me  to  the  grave  of  his  former  master  (for 
he  was  brought  up  in  the  house  of  George  Washington,  and  to  use 
his  own  words,  was  'Mr.  George's  waiting  boy'),  had  been  bequeath- 
ed to  a  nephew  of  Mrs.  Washington's;  he  next  became  the  property 
of  the  representative  of  that  nephew — a  Judge  Washington — his 
present  owner.  I  expressed  my  astonishment  at  this  statement,  as 
I  had  heard  that  Mrs.  Washington  had  followed  the  example  of 
lier  husband,  who  on  his  deathbed  performed  an  act  of  justice, 
and  by  his  will  declared  that  all  his  slaves  should  be  set  at 
liberty.  The  poor  negro  stood  staring  me  in  the  face  for  some  seconds 
with  a  strange  exj^ression  of  wonder  at  the  ignorance  of  such  a 
supposition.  The  General  had  left  sixty  slaves,  but  he  freed  them 
all  by  his  will.  His  wife  when  she  died  also  left  nearly  as  many, 
and  those  that  survived  continued  slaves.  When  I  questioned  the 
old  negro  about  his  recollections  of  Washington's  appearance  and 
habits,  he  said  he  was  only  a  boy  when  he  was  brought  into  the 
house  to  wait  on  "Mr.  George,"  who  was  always  very  kind  to  him 
and  the  other  servants.  My  informant  never  saw  but  one  good  like- 
ness of  the  General,  and  that  was  painted  on  a  French  pitcher  of 
common  ware.     He   used  to  keep  over  the  chimney-piece  in  the 


DE.    E.,    R.    MADDEN.  05 


library,   the  key  of  tUo   Bastille  of  Paris,   wliicli  had  been  given 
to  him  by  General  Lafayette. 

The  distance  from  Washington  to  Mount  Vernon  (in  the  vicinity  of 
the  first  President's  place  of  abode  and  now  his  last  rest)  is  sixteen 
miles.  Never  was  a  great  man  honoured  in  his  grave  with  a  meaner 
monument  than  the  illustrious  Washington.  The  bricks  of  which  it 
is  constructed  were  made  for  a  tomb  whish  he  had  intended  for  his 
own  remains  near  his  house,  and  where  he  was  first  buried.  He  did 
not  live,  however,  to  complete  this,  and  it  was  only  in  1830  that  his 
ashes  were  removed  and  placed  beneath  the  present  unsightly  monu- 
ment,in  front  of  which  we  read  the  following  inscription  in  large  letters — 

"  The  tomb  of  the  Washington  family." 

This  inscription  certaiidy  is  not  calculated  to  harmonise  with  the 
feelings  of  those  who  come  hither  from  distant  lands  to  visit  the  tomb 
of  George  Washington.  Not  one  word  in  relation  totheman — the  fore- 
most man  of  his  day  in  the  world — is  to  be  found  on  that  monument. 

PRESIDEI^T    JACKSON. 

On  my  arrival  in  Washington  in  January  1835,  I  called  at  the 
White  House,  on  General  Jackson,  to  whom  I  had  brought  letters  of 
introduction.  I  visited  the  palace  of  the  chief  magistrate  of  tlie  great 
Republic  at  noon,  and  was  surpriseil  to  find  no  appearance  of  Court 
life  about  the  place — no  sentinels  at  the  entrance,  no  state  servants 
in  grand  liveries  in  porch  or  hall.  The  President's  residence  is  a  fine 
mansion,  handsomely  furnished,  yet  in  fit  keeping  with  the  form  of 
government  and  tlie  genius  of  the  nation.  There  was  free  ingress  for 
every  one  decently  attired  who  chose  to  see  the  President.  The 
only  person  visible  when  I  approached  was  a  gentleman  in  plain 
attire,  thin,  and  somewhat  stooped  with  age,  smoking  leisurely 
a  short  meerchaum,  on  the  verandah  in  front  of  the  house.  I  went 
up  to  this  person,  who  appeared  to  me  to  be  one  of  the  officials  of 
the  palace,  and  said  I  was  a  native  of  Ireland  recentlv  arrived  in 
America,  who  had  letters  to  present  to  his  Excellency  from 
some  friends  of  his  in  the  West  Indies,  atid  inquired  if  he 
was  then  visible.  Whereupon  the  gentleman  raised  his  hat,  and 
addressing  me  in  the  tone,  and  with  the  deportment  of  a  French 
courtier  of  the  olden  time,  said — "  I  am  General  Jackson.  At  all 
times  I  am  glad  to  receive  visitors  from  the  old  country,  and  most 
happy  to  see  gentlemen  from  Ireland, — the  land  which  gave  birth 
to  my  fathers."  I  soon  found  few  themes  could  have  had  greater  in- 
terest for  General  Jackson  than  that  of  the  present  condition  of 
Ireland,  and  the  result  of  the  experiment  in  the  British  West 
Indies  of  the  abolition  of  slavery.  These  topics  the  President  was 
pleased  to  discuss  with  me  whilst  walking  up  and  down    the  ter- 


96  MP^MOIRS 


race  for  nearly  an  hour,  and  notwithstanding  the  divergence  of  our 
opinions  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  nothing  could  be  more  gracious 
than  the  reception  I  met  with  from  the  brave  old  soldier  of 
New  Orleans  celebrity  in  the  war  of  1814.  On  the  fol- 
lowing day  I  dined  with  him  at  the  early  liour  of  four 
o'clock,  though  it  was  a  dinner  of  State,  at  which  there  were 
twenty-two  persons.  Ten  of  the  guests  were  ladies.  General 
Jackson  did  the  honours  of  his  table  with  all  the  ease  and  polished 
courtesy  of  a  man  whose  life  had  been  spent  in  the  highest  circles 
of  old-world  society.  His  appearance  was  intellectual,  prepossess- 
ing, and  dignified.  The  dinner  was  in  the  best  French  style,  and 
the  attendance  excellent,  but  no  servants  in  livery.  He  did  me  the 
honour  of  talking  a  good  deal  to  me  throughout  the  evening,  and 
spoke  with  no  slight  degree  of  vivacity  of  the  affairs  of  France, 
and  of  the  controversy  then  going  on  concerning  certain  pecuniary 
claims  put  forward  by  the  French  government,  and  urged 
with  an  amount  of  importunate  energy  that  irritated  the  United 
States  government,  and  which  was  apparently  on  the  eve  of  term- 
inating in  war.  When  the  President  warmed  on  this  subject 
he  said : — 

*'  I  thought  myself  done  with  the  sword,  and  never  likely  to  un- 
sheath  it  more.  But  if  things  come  to  the  worst,  and  we  are 
forced  into  war,  I  am  quite  ready  to  take  the  field  again  as  I  was 
when  younger,  to  walk  over — the  invaders  of  our  soil — at  New 
Orleans."  The  veteran  lost  his  stoop  for  a  ffw  seconds,  his  eyes 
brightened,  and  his  grey  hairs,  it  seemed  to  me,  bristled  uj)  momen- 
tarily, as  he  strutted  forward  a  few  paces  from  the  fireplace  repeat- 
ing the  words — "  Just  as  ready  as  ever  to  '  walk  over '  any  enemy 
of  my  country."  This  explosion  of  the  expiring  energies  of  an  old 
soldier  was  perfectly  natural  in  its  enthusiasm,  there  was  no  affec- 
tation in  it. 

After  we  bad  discussed  the  subject  of  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  in  the  British  West  Indies,  I  said,  en  resume  of  my  views: — 
"The  sooner,  General,  you  adopt  a  similar  measure  in  the  United 
States  the  better.  It  would  be  a  fitting  finale  of  a  great  career 
like  yours  to  connect  it  with  such  an  act  of  emancipation."  The 
President  was  standing  with  his  back  to  the  fire  when  I  said  this. 
He  burst  out  laughing,  and  addressing  his  guest  on  either  side, 
said — "  This  gentleman  has  just  come  from  the  West  Indies,  where 
the  British  have  been  emancipating  their  slaves.  He  recommends 
me  to  make  myself  famous  by  following  their  example.  Come  here, 
Donaldson  (turning  round  to  his  private  secretary),  put  the 
poker  in  the  fire,  bring  in  a  barrel  of  gunpowder,  and  when  I  am 
placed  on  it  give  the  red  poker  to  tbe  Doctor,  and  he  will  make  me 
famous  in  the  twirdvling  of  an  eye."  A  lady  proposed  that  Mr. 
Donaldson  should  be  blown  up  first,  as  the  sacrifice  of  his  fame 


BT^.    E.    li.    MADDEX.  97 


would  be  so  much  the  greater — he  had  been  lately  adding  to  his 
stock  of  slaves.  The  Secretary  however  excused  himself  on  the 
ground  of  his  inferior  position,  and  the  fact  that  he  unfortunately 
at  that  moment  held  oidy  forty  slaves. 

I  subsequently  had  several  other  interviews  with  the  President,  and 
Avas  never  in  the  company  of  any  man  v/ho  left  a  more  pleasing  im- 
pression on  my  mind.  I  had  heard  him  spoken  of  as  a  rough  soldier, 
a  strong  partisan  politician,  overbearing  and  unjust  towards  his 
opponents,  but  I  found  him  a  courteous  gentleman,  full  of  quaint 
humour,  and  of  a  kindly  and  tolerant  nature.  His  patriotism  Avas 
earnest  and  unselfish,  and  seemed  to  rest  on  a  conviction  of  the 
advantages  of  American  institutions  and  the  benefits  which  their 
influence  was  destined  to  extend  to  other  nations.  To  his  mind 
the  accomplishment  of  Bishop  Berkley's  prophecy  (published  in 
1772),  seemed  not  so  remote  as  some  people  imagined — 

"  Westward  the  tide  of  empire  wends  its  way  ; 
The  four  tirst  acts  already  past, 
The  fifth  shall  close  the  di-ama  and  the  day — 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last." 

He  justly  prided  himself  on  "  the  obstinacy  of  his  resist- 
ance "  to  the  proposed  incorporation  of  a  Bank  of  the  United  States. 
This  measiu-e  Jackson  saw,  if  carried  into  effect,  would  give 
such  a  preponderance  to  '  the  moneyed  interest '  in  the  States,  that 
the  Government  ultimately  would  come  under  the  corrupting  in- 
iluence  and  control  of  tlie  stockjobbers  and  financiers  of  Wall-street 
and  its  purlieus.  Jackson  terminated  his  career,  useful  to  his 
country  and  honourable  to  himself,  in  1846,  twelve  years  after 
my  acquaintance  with  him,  and  died  on  his  estate  in  Tennessee, 
Avhere  he  had  resided  in  the  retirement  of  a  private  citizen. 


VISIT     TO     CANADA. 

Ox  December  the  29th,  1834,  I  started  from  New  York  on  a 
tour  in  Upper  Canada,  which,  though  extending  over  a  period  of 
six  weeks,  Avas  made  at  an  expense  not  exceeding  sixty  pounds 
sterling.  The  journey  from  Jersey  to  (reneva,  on  the  frontier  of 
Canada,  a  distance  of  25u  miles,  was  accomplished  by  sleigh 
travelling  in  73  hours,  via  ]Milford,  Montrose,  and  Ithaca.  On 
tiiis  last  day's  journey  I  had  the  misfortune  to  have  '-'a  saint"  of 
Ithaca  forced  on  me.  A  more  uncomfortable  travelling  companion 
than  this  zealous  minister  cannot  be  conceived.  He  hardly  gave  us  an 
hour's  respite,   bawhng  psalms  at  the   top  of    his  voice  as  if  he 

8 


98  MEMOIRS 


was  possessed  by  a  legion  of  shouting  devils.  I  remonstrated  with 
him  in  my  medical  capacity  on  the  imminent  peril  his  health  was 
incurring  from  his  incessant  vocal  labours.  But  it  had  no  effect. 
He  only  made  some  absurd  remark  concerning  the  necessity  of 
solemnizing  the  new  year  with  songs  of  spiritual  joy.  Anything 
sadder  than  these  dolefully  monotonous  tunes  I  never  heard  before. 

On  my  route  to  Toronto  from  Jersey  I  passed  through  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  York  States.  In  Peiniyslvania  I  crossed  through 
several  cultivated  districts  which  a  dozen  years  pre\'iously  had 
been  portions  of  the  forest,  and  where  log  houses  as  yet  were  the 
only  habitations  of  the  white  population,  before  whom  the  red 
man,  little  by  little,  had  fallen  back  into  the  wilderness.  Log 
houses  were  shown  to  me  on  newly-cleared  grounds,  probably  the 
destined  sites  of  future  cities,  which  had  been  erected  in  four 
days,  at  an  expense  of  about  tliirty  dollars.  The  land  along  the 
line  of  route  from  Geneva  to  Canada,  when  cleared  and  provided 
with  a  rude  house  of  this  kind  and  farm  offices,  sells  on  an 
average  for  forty  dollars  an  acre.  An  intelligent  Pennsylvanian 
told  me  that,  throughout  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  State 
of  New  York,  the  labourers,  the  majority  of  whom  are  either  Irish 
or  Scotch,  earn  about  six  shillings  a  day.  In  the  towns,  wages 
were  a  dollar  per  day. 

In  January  1834,  \vhen  I  visited  Upper  Canada,  the  Governor 
of  the  province  was  Sir  John  Colborne  (subsequently  Lord  Seaton). 
During  my  sojourn  at  Toronto  I  was  indebted  to  some  letters  of 
introduction  for  more  than  the  ordinary  civility  and  hospitality  that 
nearly  all  visitors  to  Toronto  received  at  the  hands  of  this  estimable, 
able,  and  excellent  man.  At  dinner  at  Government  House  I  met 
several  British  officers  on  half-pay,  settlers  in  that  province,  who 
had  either  purchased  or  had  land  assigned  to  them  on  terms  that 
made  such  assignments  all  but  free  grants.  Nevertheless,  these 
military  settlers  seemed  generally  far  from  successful.  The  pre- 
vailing complaint  of  those  who  had  families  was  of  the  hardships 
that  ladies  had  to  put  up  with  from  the  want  of  servants,  society, 
and  amusements,  as  well  as  the  disadvantages  from  want  of  schools 
for  their  children.  Next  to  the  lack  of  servants,  that  of  doctors 
appeared  to  be  the  want  most  felt  by  these  colonists.  The 
number  of  accidents  met  with  by  them  in  clearing  the  forest  land 
was  a  frequent  theme  of  conversation,  and  though  jocularly  carried 
on,  and  with  a  spice  of  American  humourous  exaggeration,  there  were 
fficts  enough  narrated  to  show  that  these  accidents  were  no  jokes 
in  a  community  so  largely  dependant  on  every  individual's  manual 
labour.  One  quandom  mihtary  man — gave  an  account  of  his  nearly 
severing  his  hand  with  a  hatchet  while  felling  trees.  Another 
ex-militaire  spoke  of  his  next  neighbour  having  cut  his  foot  off 
instead  of  a  stump  of  a  tree  he  was  st liking  at,  and  this  story 


DiJ.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  99 


was  improved  on  bj  a  gallant  captain  with  an  Irish  name,  by  an 
assurance  that  the  wounded  man  was  a  particular  friend  of  his, 
"  a  very  jolly,  plucky  fellow,  and  after  the  accident  he  actually 
walked  home  with  his  foot — in  his  pocket  !  "  On  a  subsequent 
occasion,  in  speaking  with  Sir  John  Colborne  on  the  subject  of 
emigration  to  Canada,  he  said  that  generally  speaking,  gentlemen 
farmers  made  bad  colonists,  but  military  men  the  worst  of  all  : 
whilst  old  sailors  made  far  better  settlers  and  accommodated  them- 
selves more  readily  to  the  many  difficulties  of  their  new  position. 
Canadian  scenery  is  exceedingly  monotonous.  The  one  eternal 
forest  meets  the  eye  in  all  directions — all  pine  ;  nothing  but  pin 


>   ! 


Every  one  and  every  thing  in  nature  pines  in  the  remote  back- 
wood  settlements  of  Canada.  British  energy  pines  there ;  youth 
and  beauty  pine  there  in  sohtude  and  seclusion.  The  old  repine, 
the  middle-agf'd  are  supine,  and  I  opine  so  would  I  become,  were  I 
long  to  remain  there. 

THE    FALLS    OF    NIAGARA. 

Those  who  desire  to  visit  the  grandest  sight  in  the  world  at 
the  best  time  for  seeing  it,  should  set  out  for  Niagara,  as  I  did, 
from  New  York  about  the  commencement  of  January.  There  had 
been  severe  frost  for  some  weeks  previously,  and  I  found  the  steep 
banks  of  the  river  below  the  Falls  covered  with  transparent  icicles 
and  patcbes  of  sleet  studded  with  "  icy  brilliants."  The  trees  on 
these  banks  in  close  proximity  with  the  Falls,  wherever  the  spray 
of  the  tumbling  waters  had  frozen  on  them  looked  like  tall  arbores- 
cent pillars,  whilst  each  branch  and  twig,  studded  with  pendant 
icelets,  streamed  with  iridiscent  light  as  they  trembled  in  the 
breeze  over  the  edge  of  the  torrent.  The  river  at  the  Falls  and 
above  them,  is  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  ;  its  depth  there  is 
250  feet.  Lake  Erie  is  290  miles  in  length.  It  terminates  in 
Niagara  river,  which  is  thirty-five  miles  long,  forming  the  wonder- 
ful cascade,  and  falling  perpendicularly  down  at  Is^'iagara  161 
feet  on  the  American  side;  and  then  from  the  Falls  to  Lewiston, 
104  feet,  and  gradually  flows  from  Lewiston  to  Lake  Ontario, 
thence  finally  discharges  itself  through  the  St.  Laurence  into  the 
Atlantic,  710  miles  distant.  Those  inland  seas,  with  their  tribu- 
tary streams,  cover  a  surface  of  150,000  square  miles,  and  contain 
nearly  half  the  fresh  wattn-  on  the  surface  of  the  globe. 

In  October  1829,  Sam  Patch,  of  adventurous  notoriety,  jum])ed 
twice,  in  the  presence  of  thousands  of  spectators,  from  the  top  of  a 
ladder,  into  the  eddy  below  the  falls.  On  this  occasion  he  survived 
his  mad  enterprise.  He  perished  afterwards,  however,  in  making 
a  similar  attempt  at  the  FaUs  of  Rochester.     A  Member  of  tho 

8  * 


100  MEMOIRS 


Society  of  Friends,  :\Ir.  Francis  Abbott,  who  liad  travelled  on  foot 
over  various  eastern  countries,  and  whom  I  had  known  in  Egypt  in 
1827  or  '28,  terminated  his  singular  career  in  "  the  hell  of  waters" 
at  Niagara,  on  the  1st  June  1831,  having  resided  in  complete 
seclusion  on  Goat  Island  for  two  years  previously.  "When  some 
years  before  I  made  his  acquaintance  in  the  East,  he  appeared 
a  cultured  and  amiable  person,  but  yet  even  then  I  thought 
him  partially  insane.  ]\Iy  friend,  Dr.  Hodgskins  of  Finsbury-square 
was  of  the  same  opinion,  and  he  had  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
his  family  in  Bristol.  One  of  his  sisters  was  as  accompHshed  and 
eccentric  as  her  unfortunate  brother. 

The  descent  down  the  bank  on  the  Canadian  side  being  ex- 
ceedingly steep,  narrow,  and  iinprovided  with  any  side  rail,  and 
bordering  on  an  awful  precipice,  is  extremely  difficult  in  frosty 
weather.  One  false  step,  and  a  short  shift  and  Sam  Patch's  fate 
at  Eochestcr  Falls  must  be  the  inevitable  result.  From  what  I 
saw  of  the  way  people  were  aided  to  descend,  I  thought  it  safer  to 
go  alone.  I  was  kindly  informed  that  in  all  probability  I  never 
would  come  up  again,  and  was  recommended  to-  leave  directions  as 
to  what  I  wished  to  have  done  with  my  luggage.  I  told  them  they 
might  send  it  down  the  river  after  me  if  I  happened,  contrary  to 
my  wishes,  to  take  that  course.  I  managed  however  to  get  down 
the  steep  glassy  surface  of  the  bank.  When  I  was  safely  planted 
on  a  ledge  of  rock  on  a  level  with  the  river,  the  first  view  of  the 
face  of  the  falhng  torrent — that  greatest  of  nature's  marvels — was 
glorious  beyond  conception.  For  some  time  I  remained  en- 
joying this  grand  spectacle,  and  felt  a  gratification  in  having  no 
one  to  speak  to  or  to  be  spoken  to  by  ;  and,  indeed,  when  I  ascended 
it  was  some  time  before  I  could  find  words  to  give  even  the  most 
faint  idea  of  the  impressions  made  on  me  by  these  mighty  cataracts. 
All  that  remained  for  me  was  "  to  imprint  them  where  alone 
they  can  be  represented — on  my  mind."  Nevertheless,  the  night 
did  not  pass  over  before  I  added  my  small  contribution  of  very  in- 
different verse  to  the  large  stock  of  that  commodity  that  owes  its 
origin  to  feelings  of  admiration  of  too  deep  a  nature  for  sober  prose. 

LINES  WRITTEN  AT  NIAGARA. 

Rome,  "  the  Eternal  City,"  have  I  seen  ; 

Have  stood  where  Ilium  was,  and  is  no  more  ; 
Where  Egypt's  grandeur  moulders  too  have  been, 

Where  her  "  time-honoured  "  pyramids  still  soar  : 

The  sacred  ruins  Zion  yet  weeps  o'er, 
Tentjra's  glory  and  Saccara's  gloom, 

The  gorgeous  piles  on  Philue's  dreary  shore — 
These  I  have  seen,  and  wonder  still  had  room 
jFor  vaster  thoughtPi  but  here  at  last  is  overcome. 


DR.    T7.    Vi.    :\rADDF,\.  101 


The  wand'ring  star  that  rules  the  traveller's  fate, 

And  lures  the  weary  pilgrim  on  his  way, 
(My  fitful  guide  in  many  a  clime  of  late) 

Left  expectation  still  full  scope  to  stnxy  ; 

But  if  that  changeful  sta-r  might  fix  its  ray, 
Earth's  wonder  here  has  surely  reached  the  goal : 

Can  art  with  all  its  miracles  display, 
Or  scene  or  sounds  like  these  ? — be  still  my  soul  ! 
'Tis  thus  that  works  like  this  should  nature's  God  extol. 

VOYAGE    FROM    NEW    YORK    TO    LIVERPOOL    IN    FEBRUARY    1835. 

On  the  3rd  February  1835,  I  embarked  with  iny  wife  at  New 
York,  on  board  the  Constitution,  a  cotton-ladeii  vessel  of  600 
tous,  bound  for  Liverpool.  On  the  eighth  day  after  our  departure 
a  melancholy  catastrophe  occurred.  One  of  the  crew,  who  during 
the  voyage  had  been  frequently  harslily  treated,  and  beaten  by  the 
first  mate,  one  morning,  attempting  to  escape  from  the  violence  of 
this  man,  ran  up  the  rigging,  pursued  by  his  assailant,  and 
when  he  got  up  to  the  cross-trees,  exclaiming  "  now  catch  me  if 
you  can,"  jumped  overboard  and  perished,  not  one  effort  being 
made  to  save  him,  and  not  one  word  of  rebuke  spoken  by  the 
captain  to  the  ruffian  who  had  caused  his  death.  I  observed  this 
unfortunate  young  sailor  particularly  when  lie  came  on  board  at 
New  York,  and  although  his  looks  were  somewhat  wild  and  excited 
like  those  of  a  man  recovering  from  delirium  tremens,  nevertheless 
he  seemed  to  go  through  his  duties  properly.  A  fesv  days  after- 
wards however,  on  going  on  deck,  I  found  him  gagged,  his  hands 
and  knees  tied  up  in  a  most  painful  position,  and  blood  coming  from 
his  mouth,  caused  by  the  tightness  of  the  cords  by  which  the  gag 
was  fixed.  I  then  went  down  to  the  captain  and  endeavoured  to 
show  that  this  atrocious  proceeding  might  be  attended  in  England 
with  unpleasant  consequences  to  liim  if  reported  to  the  authorities. 
The  result  was  he  went  on  deck  and  had  the  man  released.  After 
this  things  went  on  quietly  for  a  little  time  until  at  length  the 
catastrophe  occurred  which  I  have  described.  This  and  other  some- 
what similar  ocourrences  that  I  have  witnessed  may  probably  be 
primarily  attributed  to  the  mode  of  shipping  sailors  in  vogue  in  the 
seaports  of  the  United  States,  and  elsewhere  When  a  vessel 
comes  into  port,  after  the  crew  are  paid  off,  generally  the  men  go  into 
boarding-houses  kept  by  a  low  class  of  publicans,  where  they  re- 
main till  all  their  wages  are  gone.  These  landlords,  with  whom 
contracts  are  usually  made  for  supplying  masters  of  vessels  out- 
ward bound,  with  sufficient  hands  for  the  voyage,  having  too 
frequently  in  the  first  instance  well  fleeced  their  unfortunate  cus- 
tomers, then  ply  them  freely  with  liquor  until  they  are  intoxicated, 
and  in  this  state  poor  Jack,  often  witliout  any  outfit,  even 
for  a  mid-winter  passage  across   the  wild  Atlantic,  is  conveyed 


102  M  t  M  0  I  R  S 


on  board  a  vessel  about  to  depart.  At  starting,  nearly  our  M^bole 
crew  thus  came  on  board  drunk,  some  almost  senseless,  others  fight- 
ing, and  the  mates  tumbling  them  down  the  forecastle  steps. 
An  institution  for  the  proper  accommodation  of  discharged  seamen 
in  New  York  and  Liverpool,  not  eleemosynary  but  self-supporting, 
would  be  productive  of  obvious  advantages  not  only  to  sailors,  but 
also  to  masters  and  owners  of  merchant  vessels  and  the  safety  of 
their  passengers. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

SECOND    AND    THIRD    VISITS    TO    AMERICA. 

On  the  15th  May  1836,  I  sailed  from  Liverpool  for  New  York  on 
board  the  £w^?'rt7c^,  540  tons  burden  (Capt.  Prindle),  with  the  inten- 
tion of  proceeding  from  New  York  to  Cuba,  where  I  had  been 
recently  appointed  to  the  office  of  Superintendent  of  Liberated  Afri- 
cans, and  also  Judge  Arbitrator  in  the  Mixed  Court  of  Commission.* 
On  board  the  Emerald  there  were  208  steerage  passengers,  chiefly 
Irish,  and  most  of  the  latter  evicted  peasants  from  the  Co.  Cavan. 
The  cabin  passengers  were  Major  Masson  (a  brother  officer  and  friend 
of  the  husband  of  Sarah  Curran,  whose  mournful  story  is  the  sub- 
ject of  Washington  Irving's  beautiful  sketch  of  The  Broken 
Heart),  Messrs.  Moir,  Inchbourg,  Pieid,  and  self,  wife  and  child. 

The  distance  from  Liverpool  to  New  York  is  reckoned  at  8,600 
miles,  and  the  average  passage  out  is  28  days.  The  shortest  voy- 
age hitherto  made  across  the  Atlantic  was  that  by  Captain  Maxwell 
in  the  sailing  ship  the  England — namely,  from  New  York  to 
Cape  Clear,  in  12  days.  The  next  in  point  of  speed  was  from  New 
Y^ork  to  Liverpool  in  14  days  and  15  hours,  in  the  Independence. 
As  in  most  other  voyages  of  mine,  on  this  occasion  I  was  fortunate 
in  my  companions.  The  steerage  passengers,  however,  began  to 
quarrel  towards  the  end  of  the  voyage  ;  but  then  the  weather  had 
become  very  bad,  and  in  bad  weather  the  natural  tendency  of  all  sea- 
farers is  to  be  choleric  and  dissatisfied.  Indeed  the  unfortunate  emi- 
grants on  board  the  Emerald  had  ample  reason  to  be  discontented — 
208  human  beings  being  crowded  together  in  the  steerage,  where  the 
smell  was  intolerable,  and  the  heat  most  oppressive.  These  poor 
people,  amongst  whom  there  was  an  abundant  proportion  of  women 
and  children,  soon  found  out  there  was  a  doctor  aboard  (the  Emerald 
not  being  obliged  by  law  to  carry  a  surgeon),  and  seemed  to  think 

*  In  virtue  of  my  temporary  office  of  Judge  Arbitrator,  I  had  an  allowance  from  the 
Spanish  Government  for  house  rent  of  six  doubloons  a  month  (in  English  money  iE20  a 
month,  say  £240  a  year),  which,  so  long  as  I  h«ld  that  office  in  the  Mixed  Commission,  with 
tlie  salary  of  the  latter  £400,  and  that  of  Superintendent  of  Liberated  Africans,  made  my 
official  emoluments  altogether  £1,440  a  year. 


DH.    U.    R.     MADDF.N. 


103 


they  were  privileged  at  all  times,  night  or  day,  to  send  for  me  to 
attend  them,  and  I  thought  so  too. 

Physic,  say  what  you  will,  is  a  glorious  profession  to  practice — for 
your  pleasure,  not  your  profit;  for  I  think  it  is  often  prefer- 
able to  earn  a  poor  man's  thanks  ihan  a  rich  man's  money 
for  any  assistance  to  humanity.  If  I  had  twenty  sons  I  would 
give  them  all  the  education  of  medical  men  ;  but  I  should  be 
very  sorry  they  were  obliged  to  earn  their  bread  by  the  prac- 
tice of  the  profession,  for  it  is  a  poor  calling  for  a  talented 
and  high-minded  man  to  live  by.  Dr.  Paris  told  me  lately  at  a 
dinner  at  Savory's  that  he  never  could  discover  how  the  majority  of 
the  medical  men  in  large  practice  in  London  got  on,  as  few  of  them 
were  men  of  genius,  and  still  fewer  men  of  liberal  education.  I 
said  I  thought  the  great  quality  essential  for  success  in  London 
practice  was  impudence.  Dr.  Paris  replied  that  I  was  mistaken  in 
his  opinion,  a  still  more  essential  qaali!icatio]i  for  such  success 
there  was  a  pachydermatous  insensibility  to  the  innumerable  slights, 
impertinences,  rebuffs,  and  failures  which  most  men  have  to  en- 
counter, and  by  which  anyone  of  fine  feelings  or  sensitive  nature 
might  well  be  discomfited.  True  as  this  may  be,  nevertheless,  for 
my  own  part,  I  yet  retain  all  my  admiration  for  the  profession  which 
of  all  others  exercises,  as  a  general  rule,  the  most  humanizing  in- 
fluence on  the  minds  and  hearts  of  its  followers.  And,  having  my- 
self long  since  retired  from  that  calling,  I  may  in  reviewing  these 
reminiscences  of  a  lengthened  and  varied  experience  venture  to 
say,  that  what  I  have  thus  seen  of  the  practice  of  physic  by 
others  in  many  lands  has  convinced  me  that  the  greater  part  of 
physicians  services  to  humanity  are  freely  rendered  without  any 
immediate  recompense,  or  any  future  expectation  of  eitlier  fee  or  grati- 
tude. These  services  thus  unrecognized  however,  bring  with  them 
ample  reward  in  the  sense  of  duty  fulfilled  to  one's  suffering  fellow- 
creatures,  and  should  be  an  unfailing  source  of  support  in  the  ap- 
proaching inevitable  hour  through  the  dark  shadows  of  which  we 
may  humbly  hope  the  parting  spirit  of  every  physician  thus  true  to 
his  noble  calling  is  illumined  and  winged  on  its  passage  hence  by 
Him  who  said  :  "  I  was  sick  and  you  visited  Me,"  to  that  life 
beyond  the  grave  where  the  merciful  may  trust  for  mercy. — 

To  return  from  this  digression. — I  took  my  son  on  l^oard,  labour- 
ing under  severe  illness.*  Two  medical  men  think  his  lungs 
aff'ected,  and  there  is  but  one  chance  for  him,  viz  : — along  sea-voyage 
and  change  to  a  warmer  climate.  Hitherto  his  mother  and  myself 
have  reason  to  be  very  thankful  to  God  for  having  taken  him  with  us. 
We  are  now  nine  days  at  sea  and  the  child  is  certainly  better. 

I   landed  at   New  York     on  the    3rd   of  June,    after   a   quick 

*  Dr.  Madden's  eldest  son,  Wijliam  Purde  Madden,  then  about  seven  years  old,    who 
recovcre  1  from  this  illncs  ,  and  survived  to  reach  his  19th  year. 


lO-i  MEMOIRS 


passage.  I  find  a  great  change  in  prices  since  my  last  visit, 
eighteen  months  ago  ;  in  all  respects  living  in  New  York  for  a 
family  is  more  expensive  than  London.  Dr.  Bushe  tells  me  his  ex- 
penses last  year  were  8,000  dols.,  about  £1,000  sterling.  For  board 
and  lodging  in  Chnton  Hotel  I  paid  for  self,  wife,  and  child,  30  dollars 
a  week.  During  my  stay  I  visited  many  of  the  public  Institutions 
of  this  great  city,  and  amongst  others  Bloomingdale  Lunatic  Asylum. 
This  asylum  is  one  of  the  best  managed  asylums  for  the  insane 
I  have  ever  visited.  It  is  perhaps  surpassed  by  the  institution 
for  the  insane  at  Aversa,  in  Naples,  but  not  by  any  similar  insti- 
tution in  England,  France,  or  Germany.  The  resident  physician, 
Dr.  McDonald,  is  a  man  in  the  prime  of  life,  perfectly  conversant 
with  the  treatment  of  the  insane  in  all  the  countries  of  Europe. 
Nature  and  professional  education  seem  alike  to  concur  to  render 
this  gentleman  the  beau  ideal  of  a  medical  director  of  an  institution 
of  the  kind.  The  majority  of  the  950  patients  of  this  asylum 
are  patients  whose  insanity  has  been  caused  by  failure  in  business, 
speculation  fever,  and  intemperance.  On  each  of  my  three  visits 
I  saw  many  here  whose  ruling  passion,  strong  in  madness,  seemed 
to  be  infidelity,  and  I  lind  that  this  cause  in  America  drives 
more  people  to  madness  than  fanaticism  does  with  us.  The 
day  following  my  last  visit  to  Bloomingdale.  Dr.  McDonald 
took  me  to  the  Alms-house  of  New  York,  and  to  Blackwell  Island 
prison.  Colonel  Peters,  one  of  the  inmates  of  Bloomingdale  Asylum, 
also  accompanied  the  doctor.  Having  to  go  to  Blackwell  by  water, 
Peters  was  aUowed  to  steer  the  boat.  Seeing  that  he  steered  very 
well  I  said  to  him,  "  Colonel,  you  are  an  old  hand  at  the  helm." 
He  answered  quietly — "  You  probably  are  not  aware  that  I  am 
the  pilot  of  the  Salvation  Fleet.  This  river  is  the  road  of  the 
Pilgrims'  Progress — to  that  place  so  much  talked  of."  I  asked 
him  what  was  the  name  of  that  place?  He  replied  very  coolly, 
but  with  emphasis — "  Hell."  He  then  began  to  steer  wildly, 
and  the  doctor  had  to  call  his  attention  to  the  helm. 

In  Blackwell  Island  prison  I  was  painfully  impressed  by  the 
rigour  of  the  solitary  confinement  which  far  exceeded  anything  of 
the  kind  I  had  ever  seen  elsewhere.  In  one  of  the  cells  I  saw 
through  the  small  grated  aperture  in  the  door — a  young  English- 
man who  had  been  sentenced  to  five  years'  solitary  confinement  for 
forging  American  bank  notes.  This  prisoner  had  already  been  in  his 
dismal  cell — 7^  feet  by  5 — three  years,  and  had  two  years  more 
to  remain  there.  I  asked  the  chief  warder  if  this  unfortunate  man 
was  allowed  to  have  any  book,  such  as  a  prayerbook  or  a  bible  in 
his  cell.  "Nothing  of  the  kind  ;  no  sort  of  amusement  is  allowed," 
was  the  answer.  '•  Do  you  mean  to  say  the  bible  or  a  prayerbook 
would  be  considered  an  amusement?"  I  asked.  "  The  reading  of 
it  would  serve  to  distract  the  mind,"  said  he  ;  "  and  therefore  all 


DR.    n.    R     l\r.\DDFX.  10^ 


books  are  forbidden."  The  same  official  told  me  he  had  been  five 
years  in  that  prison  and  had  not  known  a  single  case  of  madness 
occurring  there,  which  I  confess,  much  surprised  me  ;  nor,  accord- 
ing to  him,  had  any  prisoner  died  whilst  under  solitary  confinement 
during  that  time. 

After  visiting  Blackwell  Prison  we  crossed  over  the  river  to  the 
Asylum  for  Destitute  Children,  of  whom  520  are  there  provided  for 
and  educated  on  the  Lancaster  system.  Drs.  McDonald  and 
Cornell,  Colonel  Peters,  and  myself  were  invited  to  witness  an  ex- 
amination of  the  children.  These  were  of  both  sexes,  remarkabh^ 
healthy  and  good  looking,  arranged  in  classes,  from  the  age  of  five 
to  that  of  twelve  years.  Their  progress  in  reading,  writing,  arith- 
metic, geography,  and  history  was  truly  astonishing.  In  the  ex- 
ercise room  there  were  some  hundreds  of  children  singing,  dancing, 
and  marching  in  time  to  the  clapping  of  hands  of  monitors.  The 
favourite  dance  was  the  eternal  American  one  of  Jim  Crow,  and  the 
majority  of  these  little  dancers  I  found  were  Irish,  or  of  Irish 
parentage. 

Amongst  the  philanthropist  celebrities  of  New  York  whose  ac- 
quaintance I  made  in  1834  was  Jacob  Harvey,  a  Quaker  merchant, 
a  native  of  Cork,  who  told  me  that  30,000  dollars  were  amiually 
remitted  by  the  Irish  settlers  in  the  State  of  New  York  to  their 
friends  in  Ireland.  What  a  noble  trait  in  the  character  of  the 
poor  Irish  is  this  generous  conduct  of  theirs  towards  their  still 
poorer  relatives  in  their  native  land,  whom  they  can  aid  thus  only 
by  a  self-denial  of  which  some  notable  instances  came  within  my 
own  knowledge. 

In  St.  Paul's  churchyard,  fronting  Broadway,  I  found  the  following 
inscription  (here  abbreviated)  on  a  monument  to  a  distinguished 
Irishman — 


In  Memory  of 

thomas  addis  emmet. 

Exiled  from  his  native  land, 
He  found  a  second  country, 
Which  paid  his  love  by  reverencing  his  genius. 
Learned  in  our  laws, 
An  orator  of  the  first  order : 
His  private  life  was  beautifiil, 
As  his  public  course  was  brilliant. 
Anxious  to  perpetuate 
The  Example  and  Name  of  a  man 
Thus  distinguished  by  his  genius  and  his  sacrifices, 
As  well  as  by  the  deeper  calamities  of  his  kindred  in  a  just  cause, 
His  sympathising  countrymen  erected  this  Monument. 
Born  at  Cork  34th  April,  1764, 
He  died  in  this  City,  14th  November,  1827, 


106  MEMOIRS 


Knowing  as  I  do  the  character  of  the  man  in  whose  honour  this 
inscription  was  written,  I  feel  justitied  in  declaring  that  an  epitaph 
was  never  more  just  than  that  which  Professor  Duer  composed  for 
the  monument  of  Thomas  Addis  Emmet.  There  is  another  re- 
markable inscription  here — 

TO     THE     MEMORY     OF    MRS.    CHARLOTTE     FOX. 

In  dawn  of  life  she  wisely  sought  her  God, 
And  the  straight  path  of  virtue  firmly  trod, 
Fond  to  oblige,  too  gentle  to  offend. 
Beloved  by  all,  to  all  the  good  a  friend. 
The  bad  she  censured  by  her  life  alone ; 
Blind  to  their  faults,  severe  upon  her  own. 
In  others'  griefs  a  tender  part  she  bore, 
And  with  the  needy  shared  her  little  store. 
In  distance  viewed  the  world  with  pious  dread, 
And  to  God's  Temple  for  protection  fled ; 
There  sought  that  peace  Heaven  alone  can  give. 
And  learned  to  die  ere  others  learned  to  live. 


In  the  same  churchyard,  on  the  monument  of  an  ancient 
mariner  of  the  great  Republic  who  died  in  1790,  is  the  following 
curious  epitaph,  which  I  found  elsewhere  in  the  old  country,  and 
have  made  the  subject  of  some  observations  on  the  common  practice 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  of  tombstone  robbery,  without  scruple 
or  apparent  apprehension  of  discovery,  of  the  eulogies  of  dead  men's 
virtues  :  — 

IN     MEMORY     OF     JAMES     LACEY, 

AGED      41      YEAKS. 

Tlio'  Boreas'  blasts  and  boisterous  waves 

Have  tossed  me  to  and  fro. 
In  spite  of  both  you  plainly  see 

I  harbour  here  below, 
Where,  safe  at  anchor  tlio'  I  ride. 

With  many  of  our  fleet, 
Yet  once  again  I  must  make  sail 
My  Admiral  Christ  to  meet. 


NORTH    AMERICAN    INDIANS. 

The  usual  answer  given  in  the  United  States  to  all  inquiries  con- 
cerning any  attempt  to  preserve  and  civilize  the  remnant  of  the 
aboriginal  Indian  tribes  is  to  the  effect  that  all  efforts  of  this  kind 
have  failed  utterly,  and  are  opposed  to  the  designs  of  Providence^ 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDKN.  107 


as  the  Red  Man  must  necessarily  die  out  and  be  effaced  by  advanc- 
ing civilization.  It  would  be  needless  to  offer  any  comment  on 
doctrines  such  as  these.  Mr.  Crooke,  President  of  the  American 
Fur  Company,  told  me  that  he  knew  of  only  one  instance  of  a  suc- 
cessful mission  for  the  civilization  of  the  native  Indians.  This  was 
established  by  Roman  CathoHc  clergymen  who  lived  among  the  na- 
tives for  some  time,  teaching  them  improved  methods  of  living, 
tillage,  &c.,  before  they  succeeded  in  inculcating  any  of  the  truths 
of  Christianity.  When  the  missionaries  had  thus  gained 
the  confidence  and  good-will  of  the  natives,  the  latter  cleared 
ground  for  their  benefactors,  and  built  their  church  at  Arbre 
Cresh,  in  the  Michigan  country.  The  belief  in  one  great  spirit 
prevails  among  the  Indians  throughout  all  parts  of  America,  north 
and  south.  The  number  of  dialects  is  very  great.  It  is  generally 
admitted  there  are  three  distinct  or  original  languages. 

In  January  1835  I  visited  "  the  Reserved  Lands  "  of  the  semi- 
civilized  Tuscarora  tribe,  whose  members,  now  reduced  to  300  souls, 
are  located  in  the  upper  part  of  the  State  of  New  York.  The 
"  location  "  is  about  5000  acres.  These  Tuscarora  Indians  came 
originally  from  North  Carolina  about  the  year  1712,  and  joined  the 
confederacy  of  the  five  nations.  The  young  men  shewed  some  pro- 
gress in  elementary  branches  of  education,  and  one  of  them  made 
me  a  present  of  a  very  creditable  sketch  of  his  drawing.  I  was 
struck  in  this  tribe  with  the  expression  of  mournfulness  that  seemed 
to  be  the  prevailing  characteristic  of  the  North  i^merican  Indian 
race,  and  which  I  never  observed  in  any  other  aboriginal  tribes, 
either  in  Africa  or  in  Austraha. 


DEPARTURE    FROM    AMERICA. WRECK    OF    THE    SCOTIA. 

On  tlie  25th  of  November  1889  wc  sailed  from  New  York  on  board 
the  American  sading  packet  Tioseius,  one  of  the  finest  of  the 
vessels  of  the  Collins  Line.  The  passage  for  myself,  ^ife,  and 
child  was  300  dollars.  There  were  sixteen  cabin  passengers,  and 
seventy  in  the  steerage.  Amongst  our  fellow-voyagers  were  Mr. 
Catlin,  the  celebrated  traveller  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  historian 
of  the  Indian  races  ;  Mr.  Sharman,  a  grandson  of  one  of  the  signators 
to  the  "  Declaration  of  Independence "  ;  Mr.  Henry  Shaw,  etc. 
On  the  5th  of  December,  in  a  heavy  gale,  we  fell  in  with  the  wreck 
of  the  Scotia,  bound  from  Quebec  to  Glasgow,  burden  OOO  tons, 
laden  with  timber,  water-logged,  in  latitude  46,  longitude  32*30. 
Seeing  signals  of  distress  flying,  we  altered  our  course.  On  hailing 
her,  the  answer  wos — "  We  are  water-logged — seventeen  feet  of  water 
in  the  hold."     The  prompt  reply  of  Captain  Collins  was  :  '•  We  will 


lOS  M  E  M  0  I  R  S 


stand  by  you  ;  if  you  want  to  come  on  board  put  out  your  boats." 
A  cheer  from  the  people  of  the  sinking  vessel  followed — such  a 
thrilling  cry  as  men  in  the  extremest  peril  suddenly  restored  to 
liope  alone  could  utter.  An  effort  was  made  to  near  us,  but  the 
water-logged  vessel  was  utterly  unmanageable  ;  she  pitched  heavily, 
as  if  she  would  have  gone  down  headlong ;  the  sea  swejit  over  her, 
iuid  as  she  rose,  poured  through  her  broken  ports.  Her  mizen 
mast  and  main-top-gallant  masts  had  been  cut  awa}--  to  ease  her, 
and  the  poop  deck,  where  the  crew  were  congregated,  seemed  the 
only  place  of  safety  left  them.  In  attempting  to  approach,  she 
came  staggering  down  on  us,  and  we  were  compelled  to  make  sail 
to  escape  out  of  her  way.  The  sea  ^\'as  very  heavy.  We  again  lay 
to  about  a  mile  from  the  Scotia.  Night  came  on,  and  the  disal»led 
vessel  w^as  lost  sight  of.  It  would  l)e  im})ossible  to  avoid  com- 
mendation of  our  captain's  conduct.  His  anxiety  to  reach  Liver- 
pool made  every  moment  of  importance.  We  had,  moreover,  seventy 
steerage  passengers  and  twenty-one  in  the  cabin  ;  and  to  lay  to  "all 
night,  and  in  a  heavy  gale,  alongside  an  utterly  unmanageable 
vessel,  was  a  determination  many  a  ship  master  might,  I  fear,  have 
found  some  difficult}^  in  coming  to  or  promptly  acting  on.  At  7  a.m. 
cheering  was  heard  in  the  direction  of  the  Scotia,  and  after  some 
time  her  long  boat,  lilled  with  people,  was  on  our  lee  quarter.  The 
captain  and  several  of  the  crew  and  officers  still  remained  on  the 
sinking  vessel.  A  considerable  interval  elapsed  during  which  nothing- 
was  seen  or  heard  of  them.  At  length  faint  shouts  w^re  heard,  and 
a  mere  skiff  of  a  boat  with  the  captain  of  tlie  Scotia  and  five  men 
came  alongside,  though  how  she  could  have  lived  through  that  tem- 
pestuous sea  was  a  marvel.  The  exhausted  crew  were  now  taken  on 
board,  at  the  end  of  a  spare  topmast  thrust  through  a  porthole,  and 
thus  lifted  up  by  men  stretched  out  along  the  yard.  It  is  much 
to  the  credit  of  Captain  James  of  the  Scotia,  that  he  was  the  last 
person  to  leave  the  sinking  vessel,  and  on  reaching  the  Boscius  his 
first  question  was — "  Are  all  my  men  safe."  I  was  struck  with  an 
appearance  of  bewilderment  observable  in  several  of  the  rescued 
sailors.  The  effects  of  long  continued  suffering  and  terror  being 
shown  in  half-drunken  looks  (real  intoxication  there  was  none), 
difficulty  in  comprehending  questions  asked,  and  finding  words  to 
answer  them  ^vhen  understood.  The  crew  as  w^ell  as  the  captain 
were  all  Scotch,  and  their  conduct  did  honour  to  their  country. 
Hardly  were  the  boats  cast  off  than  a  still  more  violent  gale  set 
in,  so  that  very  shortly  there  was  ample  occasion  on  board  the  Boscius 
for  all  the  additional  hands  she  then  had,  and  there  could  be  no 
doubt  that  the  Scotia  must  have  gone  down  in  the  course  of  that 
night  when  the  storm  was  at  its  height. 


DK.    R.    R.    MADDF.N.  100 


THE    RESCUE, 


Heroes  can  boast  their  thousands,  and  their  tens 

Of  thousands,  slaughtered  on  the  fiekl  of  strife.  j 

And  this  is  glory  !     Oh  !  what  countless  pens 

And  tongues  extoll  the  waste  of  human  life. 

This  mighty  carnage  is  a  theme  that's  rife 
With  praise  and  plaudits,  and  the  chief  whose  sword 

Hath  caused  more  bloodshed  than  th'  assassin's  knife,  j 

And  dealt  out  wholesale  mischief,  is  adored,  i 

Whilst  he  who  murders  singly  only,  is  abhorred. 

i 

Is  there  for  bloodless  exploits  no  renown  ? — 

Exploits  that  speak  of  promptings  from  above  ? 
No  pen  for  themes  of  mercy  ever  shown 

By  man  to  man  ?  no  power  in  them  to  move 

The  heart  by  deeds  whicdi  angels  might  approve  ? 
Is  there  no  fame  for  the  humane  and  good  j 

On  high  achievements  bent  ?  for  acts  of  love, 

With  traits  of  grandeur  suitably  endowed,  \ 

But  with  no  trace  of  blood,  sin-tainted  and  imbued  ?  1 


Fame  !  let  thy  tiumpet  sound  the  warrior's  praise  ! 

Glory  be  his  who  courts  the  world's  applause  ! 
Honour  for  him  l»y  whom  the  public  gci/e 

Is  sought  and  shared,  t)ll  some  new  object  draws 

Away  its  glance  !     Thou,  in  a  nobler  cause, 
For  greater  recompense  than  fleeting  fame, 

Hast  done  a  glorious  deed — snatched  from  the  jaws 
Of  death  a  host — what  more  can  tongue  proclaim, 
Or  better  meed  on  earth  can  mortal  make  his  aim  ? 


IV. 

Oh  !  when  thou  hast  to  meet" thy  God  on  high, 

On  record  be  that  thrilling  cry  of  their's 
Which  rent  the  air,  on  hearing  thy  reply. 

And  made  the  wreck  resound  with  thankful  prayers 
Then  may  they  prove  the  death  of  all  tby  fears — 

The  life  of  all  thy  hopes  beyond  the  grave — 
And  plead  in  thy  behalf  with  One  who  hears 

Prayers  such  as  those  for  blessings  on  the  brave 

And  good,  whose  glorious  mission  is  to  serve  and  save.* 

R.  R.  M. 

*  Written  on  tlie  occasiuu  of  Caiitain  Collins,  of  the  Araericau  packet  Rosciua,  taking 
twenty-four  men  ufl  the  wreck  of  the  Scotia,  on  the  night  of  the  5ih  December  ]8:i9,  in 
the  Atlantic,  lat.  46,  long.  32.30,  during  a  viokut  galo  of  wind-  Puhliohed  in  the  Jjivojjool 
Albion  of  the  — th  December  lQ6d. 


110  MEMOtES 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 

SECOND    VISIT    TO    EGYPT    WITH    SIR   MOSES    MONTEFiORE. 

Shortly  after  returning  to  Europe  from  the  West  Indies  on  leave  of 
absence,  the  sphere  of  my  duties  was  transferred  to  Africa  by  my  ap- 
pointment as  her  H.  M.  Special  Commissioner  of  Inquiry  into  the 
Administration  of  the  British  Settlements  on  the  West  Coast  of 
Africa,  and  the  period  of  departure  for  that  country  was  fixed  for 
the  latter  part  of  October.  Before  entering  on  those  duties  (early  in 
the  year  1840)  I  accompanied  Sir  Moses  Montefiore  in  his  benevolent 
mission  to  the  East,  the  object  of  which  was  to  inquire  into  various 
charges  brought  against  the  Jew^s  of  Damascus,  and  to  endeavour 
to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  the  oppression  consequent  on  these 
charges.  It  was  also  sought,  if  possible,  to  obtain  from  the  ruler 
of  Egypt  the  total  abolition  of  judicial  torture  throughout  the  ])Y0- 
vinces  subject  to  his  power.  This  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  good  work, 
and  I  willingly  engaged  in  it.  The  other  gentlemen  who  accom- 
panied Sir  Moses  Montefiore  and  his  lady  were  Mr.  David  Weir, 
the  late  under-sheriff  of  the  City  of  London,  the  professional  ad- 
viser of  Sir  Moses,  and  charged  with  the  legal  management  of  the 
proceedings,  and  Dr.  Loewe,  in  the  capacity  of  secretary  and  inter- 
preter. The  strong  interest  taken  in  the  mission  by  the  British 
Government,  and  the  influence  of  the  leading  person  in  that  in- 
quiry, gave  a  character  to  its  proceedings  which  largely  contributed 
to  its  success.  The  English  mission  was  joined  at  Marseilles  by 
Monsieur  Cremieux,  a  distinguished  Jewish  advocate  at  the  French 
Bar,  and  his  lady,  and  Mr.  Munk,  an  Oriental  linguist,  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Bibliotheque  Royal  of  Paris. 

Immediately  after  our  arrival  in  Cairo,  on  our  first  interview 
with  the  Pasha,  an  address  was  presented  setting  forth  the  wrongs 
recently  inflicted  on  the  Jews,  and  praying  to  be  permitted  to  proceed 
immediately  to  Damascus  to  investigate  the  matter,  and  to  lay 
before  his  Highness  any  evidence  obtained  on  the  subject.  The 
Pasha  replied  he  would  take  a  week  to  consider  this  application  ; 
and  at  the  expiration  of  that  period  we  were  told  that  the  pressure 
of  political  matters  did  not  allow  him  to  give  a  definite  answer  to 
our  application.  After  some  days  we  had  another  unsuccessful  in- 
terview with  his  Highness,  whose  refusal  was  ascribable  to  the  in- 
fluence of  the  French  Consul,  Monsieur  Cochelet.  Subsequently 
we  again  waited  on  the  Viceroy,  and  at  this  period,  his  political 
difficulties  increasing  daily,  it  was  easy  to  perceive  that  French  in- 
fluence was  diminishing.  In  short,  the  appearance  of  the  British 
squadron  off  these  shores,  had  operated  very  beneficially  on  the 


DR.    E.    K.    MADDEN.  Ill 


views  of  his  Highness.  Ultimately,  after  prolonged  negotiations, 
our  demands  were  fully  acceeded  to,  and  were  embodied  in  a  firman 
despatched  by  the  Pasha  to  the  Governor  of  Damascus.  The 
object  of  our  mission  having  been  gained,  by  the  liberation  of  the 
men  held  in  confinement,  and  by  the  entire  cessation  of  the  perse- 
cution, in  compliance  with  my  instructions  to  be  in  readiness  to 
proceed  with  the  African  expedition  on  the  16th  October,  I  returned 
to  England. 

During  my  stay  with  Sir  Moses  Montefiore  in  Cairo  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1840,  I  revisited  the  Pyramids.  The  fourteen  years  that 
had  elapsed  since  my  former  visit  had  made  no  alteration  in  their 
exterior,  which  in  fourteen  centuries  to  come  will  in  all  probability 
1)0  found  as  now.  But  within,  what  time  had  spared,  the  vandalism 
of  antiquarian  curiosity  has  devastated.  Col.  Vyse  has  done  more 
injury  to  the  internal  structure  of  one  of  them  than  "the  genius 
of  forty  centuries  "  that  watches  over  them  had  witnessed,  from  the 
days  of  Cambyses  to  those  of  Napoleon.  I  found  my  name  in  the 
principal  chamber  of  the  great  pyramid,  written  on  the  wall  op- 
posite Belzoni's,  with  a  piece  of  charcoal,  as  fresh  as  if  it  had  been 
pencilled  the  day  before.  I  had  tbe  satisfaction,  also,  of  finding  my 
initials  sculptured  on  the  top  where  I  had  cut  them  with  a  pen- 
knife in  1826.  On  my  second  visit  I  was  accompanied  by  Andrew 
Doyle,  editor  of  the  Morning  Chronicle,  as  "  merry  a  man  within 
the  limits  of  becoming  mirth  I  did  ever  meet  withall,"  and  David 
Weir,  late  under-sheriff  of  the  city  of  London.  We  slept  at  the 
entrance  of  the  pyramid  from  about  midniglit  till  dawn,  and  Doyle 
and  myself  had  the  honour  in  the  morning  of  stretching  our  bones 
at  full  length  in  Cheop's  stone  coffin.  The  principal  chamber  is 
now  encumbered  with  the  rubbish  and  fragments  of  stone  excavated 
by  Colonel  Vyse,  and  huddled  together  there,  to  the  great  detriment 
of  that  part  of  the  structure.  On  my  return  from  Alexandria  I 
embarked  on  board  the  French  steamer,  Tancrede,  for  Malta.  The 
packets  of  this  service  from  Mai'seilles  to  Alexandria  are  well  found, 
well  manned,  and  kept  up  for  political  objects  at  a  great  expense 
by  the  French  Government 

After  his  return  from  Egypt,  Dr.  Madden  received  the  following 
letter  from  the  Anti- Slavery  Society  : — 

Q6,  New  Broad-st.,  Nov.  11th,  1840. 
My  Dear  Sir, 

I  am  directed  by  the  Committee  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Anti- Slavery  Society  to  convey  to  you  an  expression  of  their  sincere 
and  cordial  thanks  for  the  excellent  and  manly  letter  addressed  by 


119  MEMOIRS 


you  to  the  Pasha  of  Egypt,  Mehemet  Ah,  ou  the  subject  of  slavery 
in  his  clomiuions.  The  Committee  also  desire  to  thank  you  for 
the  other  valuable  services  you  have  elsewhere  rendered  them,  and 
for  the  readiness  you  have  on  all  occasions  evinced  to  afford  your 
influential  assistance  in  promoting  the  great  object  they  have 
in  vie\y. 

J.  H-  TiJEDGOLD,  Sec. 
7,  Pantoin  Square,  Nov.  13th,  1840. 
My  Dear  Sir, 
I  beg  to  return  my  best  thanks  to  tlie  Committee  of  the  British 
and   Foreign  Anti- Slavery   Society  for  the  manner  in  which  they 
have  been  pleased  to  notice  my  poor  efforts  in  their  cause  in  Egypt 
and  elsewhere.     If  these   efforts  have  ever  cost  me  any  trifling 
sacrifice   I   feel    amply   repaid  by  the  approbation  of  men  whose 
approval  it  is  an  honourable   distinction  to  obtain  ;  and  with  the 
blessing  of  God,  for  His  honour,  and  for  the  good  of  Plis  creatures, 
I  will  continue,  to  the  utmost  of  my  power,  to  promote  the  interests 
of  this  good  cause. 

Very  truly  yours,  R.  R.  Madden. 
To  J.  H.  Tredgold,  Esq. 

On  the  7th  of  January,  1841,  P)r.  Madden  embarked  for  the 
Gambia — to  enter  on  his  duties  as  her  Majest3''s  Commissioner 
of  Inquiry  into  the  affairs  of  the  British  settlements  on  the  West 
Coast  of  Africa.  On  his  arrival  on  the  Gold  Coast  he  threw 
himself  with  his  accustomed  energy  into  the  work  he  was  selected 
to  accomplish,  and  (despite  the  efforts  of  the  local  authorities  to 
impede  his  inquiry)  soon  unearthed  and  exposed  the  fact  that, 
under  the  name  of  the  "  Pawn  System,"  slavery  existed  even  in 
the  very  forts  and  posts  established  by  the  English  Government 
for  the  protection  of  the  negroes.  During  this  appointment  Dr. 
Madden's  surveillance  extended  to  the  Gold  Coast,  Gambia,  and 
Cape  Coast,  and  his  services  there  w^ere  thus  acknowledged  by  the 
Government  of  that  day  : 

Downing  Street,  17th  Sept.  1841. 
Sir, 

I  have  to  acquaint  you  that  I  have  now  under  my  consideration 
the  several  reports  which  you  have  addressed  to  her  Majesty's 
Government  relating  to  the  affairs  of  her  Majesty's  settlements  on 
the  Western  Coast  of  Africa,  and  that  I  am  desirous  of  expressing 
to  you  the  high  sense  which  I  entertain  of  the  ability  and  zeal  with 
•svhich  you  have  discharged  the  duties  and  executed  the  inquiries 
which  have  been  entrusted  to  you. 

"  I  am,  Sir,  your  obedient  humble  servant, 

*'  STA^LEY." 


DE.    E.    E.    MADDEN.  113 


The  result  of  Dr.  Maddens  investigations  may  be  found  in  the 
two  folio  volumes  of  his  official  Report,  which,  with  the  evidence 
he  collected  on  the  condition  of  the  West  African  Settlements,  were 
presented  to  Parliament  in  1842.  So  astounding  were  his  revela- 
tions of  the  continuance  of  the  Slave-Trade  in  our  possessions  on  the 
West  Coast  of  Africa,  that  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 
was  appointed  to  investigate  the  matter.  On  this  committee  a  seat 
was  given,  however,  to  an  affluent  West  African  merchant  largely 
implicated  in  the  slave-trade,  and  by  him  and  his  friends  no  stone 
was  left  unturned  and  no  abuse  spared  in  the  futile  attempt  to  con- 
trovert that  Report.  Some  extracts  from  a  pamphlet  published  by 
Dr.  Madden  at  this  time,  entitled  "  The  Slave-Trade  aided  anil 
abetted  under  the  name  of  'Pawning'  on  the  Gold  Coast,"  will  best 
show  the  importance  of  his  West  African  mission  : — 

"  Persons  possessed  of  wealth  and  power,  whose  interests  have 
been  hurt  by  the  discharge  of  my  duties  in  the  office  of  Commis- 
sioner of  Inquiry  into  the  state  of  our  settlements  on  the  AVestern 
Coast  of  Africa,  have  recently  found  means  to  advocate  their  views 
in  the  columns  of  the  Moniiufj  Herald.  These  gentlemen  are  the 
suppliers  of  the  slave- dealers  of  Africa  with  the  goods  essential  to 
the  trade  in  stolen  men.  By  them  I  am  described  as  a 
*  hungry  Whig  Radical,'  for  whose  advantage  the  mission  to  the 
coast  of  Africa  was  planned  and  carried  into  effect. 

"'  Whatever  my  political  sentiments  were,  they  have  undergone 
no  change  before  or  since  my  hrst  employment  in  the  public  service 
in  1833.  Since  that  period  I  have  filled  different  offices  connected 
with  our  Anti-Slavery  efforts  in  various  countries,  and  from  every 
successive  Colonial  Secretary  of  State  up  to  the  present  time,  and 
including  the  present  Secretary,  I  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  re- 
ceive documentary  evidence  of  the  approval  of  my  services,  and  in 
no  one  instance  to  have  received  an  intimation  of  their  displeasure. 

"At  the  period  this  Commission  was  determined  on,  I  filled  the 
office  of  Superintendent  of  liberated  Africans  at  Havana,  a  perma- 
nent appointment  lield  by  Royal  Commission.  In  the  spring  of 
1840  I  was  in  England  on  leave  of  absence,  and  was  about  to  re- 
turn to  the  sphere  of  my  duties,  when  the  determination  of  the 
Government  was  communicated  to  me,  with  respect  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  Commission  of  Inquiry  into  West  African  affairs,  and  an 
opinion  was  expressed  that  my  services  could  be  more  advanta- 
geously employed  there  thnn  elsewhere.  To  accept  of  this  tempo- 
rary appointment  I  rehnquished  a  permanent  one.  So  much  for 
the  truth  of  the  assertion  that  this  mission  was  a  job  to  promote 
my  interests. 

'•'  The  necessity  was  then  most  urgent  for  the  institution  of  an  in- 
quiry into  the  connection  of   British  commerce  with  the  Slave- 

9 


114  MEMOIRS 


Trade.  The  rigorous  surveillauce  of  our  cruising  squadrons  on  the 
western  coast  of  Africa  had  effected  the  prevention  of  foreign  vessels 
from  supplying  the  various  slave  factories  on  the  coast  with  stores 
and  goods  necessary  to  the  felonious  trade  in  men.  The  plan  then 
hecame  adopted  by  certain  merchants  in  London,  connected  with 
our  settlements  on  the  Gambia  and  at  the  Gold  Coast,  of  supplying 
the  slave  factories  directly  with  such  goods.  The  Slave-Trade  ships 
likewise  obtained  similar  supplies  at  our  settlements,  and  were  suf- 
fered to  anchor  under  the  guns  of  our  forts,  and  to  be  registered 
there  as  vessels  employed  in  legal  trade.  Thus  the  efforts  of  our 
cruising  squadron  were  completely  frustrated.  In  the  settlements 
along  this  coast  a  system  of  actual  slavery  under  another  name  ex- 
isted at  the  time  of  my  visit  as  Her  Majesty's  Commissioner  there. 
*'  I  stated  in  my  report  that  I  had  found  ninety-one  of  the  native 
people  confined  in  the  dungeons  of  Cape  Coast  Castle;  that  I  called  on 
Captain  Maclean,  Governor  of  the  Settlement,  for  the  official  record 
of  the  sentences  pronounced  in  these  cases,  and  that  no  such  record 
could  be  produced ;  that  a  vast  number  of  these  persons  had  been  im- 
prisoned for  long  periods,  some  even  for  four  years,  and  the  great  ma- 
jority for  no  determined  period.  That  there  were  no  judicial  establish- 
ments on  the  Gold  Coast,  and  that  the  power  of  inflicting  capital 
punishment  was  claimed,  and  had  been  exercised,  by  Mr.  Maclean ;  and 
that  Captain  Tucker,  of  her  Majesty's  ship  Wolverine,  had  been 
cognizant  of  such  executions  having  taken  place.  I  likewise  asserted 
that  I  found  slavery  existing  at  all  our  settlements  on  the  Gold  Coast ; 
that  the  practice  of  buying,  holding,  and  selling  men  under  the  name 
of  'Pawns'  existed  at  Cape  Coast  Castle  ;  that  I  had  received  memo- 
rials from  eleven  of  the  '  Pawns '  of  Mr.  Maclean  himself,  complaining 
of  their  treatment  and  of  their  being  thus  held  in  bondage  by  hiiii. 
Whilst  employed  on  this  mission  1  visited  every  British  settle- 
ment on  the  Western  Coast  of  Africa,  with  one  exception,  and 
touched  at  most  of  the  Portuguese  slave  haunts  along  the  coast,  from 
the  Gambia  to  the  Line,  and  thus  had  ampler  opportunities 
than  Mr.  Forster  deemed  essential  to  his  peculiar  views  for  the 
civilization  of  Africa  of  making  myself  acquainted  with  the  nature 
of  his  commercial  operations.  During  this  time  I  was  attacked 
with  fever  at  Cape  Coast  Castle,  and  suffered  severely  from  it. 
Of  the  five  weeks  which  I  passed  at  that  place,  I  was  confined  to 
my  bed  and  unable  to  attend  to  my  duties  for  about  ten  or  twelve 
days.  If  I  had  been  incapable  of  attending  to  them  during  the 
seven  weeks  Mr.  Forster  speaks  of,  I  must  have  been  conveyed  by 
some  miraculous  means  along  a  fine  of  coast  of  about  three  thousand 
miles.  ...  I  am  charged  by  Mr.  Forster  with  making  a  trade  of  the 
Slave  question.  It  is  something,  after  all,  to  be  obnoxious  to 
the  charge  of  trafficing  in  the  question  only.  Against  him  I  have 
brought  a  graver  charge.    I  freely  acknowledge  that  for  many  years 


DR.    R.     R.     MADDEN.  115 


my  efforts  have  been  calculated  to  be  injurious  to  his  interests.  I 
have  wilfully  and  wittingly  aided  aud  abetted  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  and  the  trade  in  slaves,  by  all  the  means  in  my  po^^-er.  In 
conclusion,  I  would  beg  leave  to  observe  that  I  am  fully  sensible  of 
the  advantages  which  Mr.  Forster  has  over  me,  in  some  particulars, 
in  regard  to  a  discussion  of  this  kind.  He  has  wealth  at  his  dis- 
})Osal,  and  his  use  of  it  will  not  be  restrained  by  any  trifling 
consideration  in  the  defence  of  his  interests.  He  has  the  columns 
of  a  morning  paper  at  his  command,  and  he  has  a  seat  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  consequently  he  has  the  opportunity  of 
devoting  his  eloquence  to  the  advocacy  of  his  views.  I  have  none 
of  these  privileges.  There  is,  however,  one  advantage  which  I  am 
very  conscious  of  possessing  over  Mr.  Forster,  viz.,  the  advantage 
which  the  calumniated  has  over  the  calumniator — the  friend,  in 
practice,  of  Negro  Emancipation  and  Slave-Trade  Abolition  over 
the  sly,  covert  pretender,  who  maintaius  by  his  acts  what  he 
assumes  to  reprobate  by  word,  and  who  promotes  his  private  in- 
terests by  means  which  he  publicly  condemns. 

••  I  am,  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"R.   R.   MADDbiN." 


PUBLIC    VIxNmCATlON    Oi    DR.    MADDEN  B    VVESl'    AFRICAN    REPORT. 

The  best  vindication  of  Dr.  Madden's  West  African  Report,  as 
well  as  the  fullest  exposure  of  the  manner  in  which  it  was  attacked 
by  the  slave-traders,  may  be  found  in  the  volume  of  evidence  pub- 
lished by  the  Parliamentary  Committee  appointed  to  investigate 
this  subject,  and  in  the  comments  on  this  question  in  the  newspapers 
of  that  day.  Amongst  the  latter  may  be  named  The  United  Service 
Gazette,  The  Morning  Chronicle,  The  Freemans  Journal,  The 
Planet,  The  Leeds  Mercury,  etc.  One  extract  will  suffice  to  prove 
this. 

{Leeda  Mercury  of  February  13th,  1843). 

*'The  publication  of  Dr.  Madden's  Report  on  the  state  of  the 
British  Settlements  in  West  Africa  has  given  rise  to  a  controversy 
which  is  raging  at  present  in  the  daily  papers  with  uncommon  viru- 
lence. The  estimable  and  benevolent  Doctor  is  attacked  in  some 
dozens  of  columns  of  abuse  by  the  parties  whose  works  of  darkness 
he  has  dragged  into  open  day.  Although  we  are  glad  to  embrace 
the  opportunity  of  expressing  our  high  admiration  of  Dr.  Madden's 
zealous  and  self-sacrificing  labours  on  behalf  of  the  oppressed,  first 
in  the  British  West  Indies,  then  in  Cuba,  and  lastly  in  Africa,  yet 

9  * 


116  MEMOIRS 


oar  present  object  is  less  to  do  justice  to  his  claims  ou  public  grati- 
tude than  to  draw  attention  to  the  facts  that  are  now  brought  to 
light  by  this  controversy. 

"  Dr.  Madden  was  sent  out  about  two  years  ago  to  West  Africa  on 
a  tour  of  inspection.  On  his  return  it  was  rumoured  that  his  Re- 
port contained  very  startling  revelations  respecting  the  connexion 
of  British  merchants  with  the  x\frican  Slave-Trade.  We  believe 
it  is  no  secret  that  the  late  Government  had  resolved  to  institute  a 
criminal  prosecution  against  the  house  of  Forster  and  Co.,  of  Lon- 
don, which  was  most  largely  implicated  in  the  practices  brought  to 
light  by  Dr.  Madden.  ]\Ieantime,  however,  the  present  Ministry 
took  office,  and  in  this  particular  instance  they  totally  changed  the 
measures  of  their  predecessors.  Instead  of  sending  the  atfair  to 
the  Queen's  Ben(-h,  they  sent  it  to  a  C'ommittee  of  the  Honse  of 
Commons,  and  placed  Mr.  Forster,  M.  P.  for  Berwick,  and  the  head 
of  the  firm  in  question,  upon  this  Committee,  to  sit  in  judgment 
and  report  on  his  own  conduct !  Of  course  he  became  one  of  the 
most  zealous  and  prominent  members  of  the  Committee.  The 
United  Service  Gazette,  (representing  the  views  of  the  high- 
minded  officers  of  the  British  navy  employed  to  suppress  the  slave 
trade)  complains  indignantly  of  the  indecency  of  allowing  this  man 
to  marshal  the  evidence  on  one  side,  producing  a  long  string  of  his 
own  clerks  and  dependents,  and  on  the  other  hand  to  browbeat  and 
insult  such  witnesses  as  Dr.  Madden  and  the  Hon.  Captain  Den- 
man.  Truth  however  thrives  by  discussion,  and  derives  new  vigour 
from  the  crooked  practices  of  its  opponent.  Dr.  Madden's  Report 
is  before  the  world,  and  the  leading  facts  are  undisputed  and  indis- 
putable. We  wish,  for  the  sake  of  the  honour  and  consistency  of 
Great  Britain,  it  were  otherwise." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  British  Anti-Slavery  Society,  held  at  27, 
New  Broad  Street,  London,  on  the  31st  March  1848,  it  was  unani- 
mously resolved  — 

**  That  this  Committee  tender  to  R.  R.  Madden,  Esq.  M.D,,  Her 
Majesty's  late  Commissioner  on  the  Western  Coast  of  Africa,  their 
cordial  thanks  for  the  zeal  and  ability  with  which  he  discharged  the 
duties  confided  to  him,  and  for  the  fearless  and  impartial  nianner  in 
which  he  has  exposed  the  evils  connected  with  British  participation 
in  the  Shive-Trade  and  the  'Pawn'  system.  They  would  further  ex- 
press their  deep  regret  that  any  portions  of  his  valuable  Report 
should  have  been  withhekl  by  the  Government  from  the  British 
public,  and  their  warm  sympathy  with  him  under  the  unjust  at- 
tacks to  which  he  has  been  subjected  by  parties  implicated  in  the 
transactions  exposed,  and  which  he  has  so  successfully  refuted." — 
John  Scoble,  Secretary. 


DP.    R.    P.    MADDFN.  117 


(From  Tlioraaw  Olarkson). 

Playford  Park,  16tb  ;A])ril  1H48. 
Dear  Sir, — 1  am  sorry  that  we  are  likely  to  Iorc  your  services  by 
your  residence  in  another  country.  I  belit^ve  tliat  a  more  ardent, 
zealous,  laborious,  and  efficient  friend  of  tbe  cause  is  not  to  bo 
found  in  all  our  members.  I  remember  well  wbat  you  attem])ted 
to  do  for  UH  in  Egypt,  and  tlie  bard  and  dilbcult,  and  I  may  add 
dangerous  task  you  bad  to  perform  for  tbe  Cape  Coast,  among  a 
set  of  unprincipled  men  wbo  looked  upon  you  wbile  there  with  a 
hostile  eye,  and  endeavoured  to  thwart  you  in  all  your  proceedings ; 
and  tbe  happy  exposure  of  their  atrocious  system  as  connected  with 
the  Slave-Trade.  Nor  can  I  forget  tbe  cruel  warfare  you  bad  to 
sustain  (cruel  indeed,  inasmuch  as  your  character  was  concerned) 
against  the  vile  and  servile  agents  of  that  trade  in  London,  and  your 
victory  over  them,  which  victory  was  of  service  to  our  cause.  .  .  . 
I  must  now  bid  you  farewell  in  the  most  extensive  meaning  of  that 
beautiful  word.  I  am  sure  tliat  wherever  you  go  my  spirit  will  ac- 
company you  with  my  best  wishes,  and  it  is  my  earnest  desii'e  that 

you   should   be  blessed  in  all  your  good  undertakings As 

for  myself,  I  am  now  in  tbe  84th  year  of  my  age,  much  worn  out 
and  shattered,  and,  alas  !  have  little  prospect  of  being  further  use- 
ful to  our  commoli  cause. 

I  am,  my  denr  Sir,  with  regard  and  esteem,  yours  truly, 

Thomas  Clahkso.v. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

NOTICE      OF      T..    E.    L. IIER     DEATH      IN     CAPE      COAST     CASTI.K. DR. 

MADDKN's    mission    to    PARIS    IX    1848. SKETCH    OF  '  P,KRANGER. 

In  the  preceding  eba]i)ter  mention  has  been  made  of  Mr.  Maclean, 
Governor  of  Cape  Coast  Castle,  with  whom  Dr.  Madden  was  brought 
into  collision  in  tbe  discharge  of  bis  duties  as  Commissioner  in  the 
West  African  British  Settlements.  In  connc'xion  with  that  person 
some  circumstances  occurred  at  this  time  in  reference  to  the  history 
of  the  once  popular  poetess  (Miss  Landon),  better  known  by  her 
nom  de  plume  "  L.  E.  L.,"  and  which  subsequently  gave  rise  to 
some  published  correspondence  that  may  be  briefly  referred  to.  In  so 
doing  it  is  needless  to  allude  in  e.rtemo  to  the  sad  story  of  "L.E.L.," 
which  has  been  detailed  in  Dr.  Madden's  Memoirs  of  I^ady  Bles- 
sington,  vol.  II.  It  is  enough  here  to  say  that,  fi'om  tbe  period 
when  tbe  first  poem  to  which  tbe  initials  of  "L.  E.  L.,"  then  onlv 


118  MEMOIRS 


ill  her  fifteenth  year,  were  affixed,  appeared  in  the  Literary  Gazette. 
Prohably  no  author  ever  rose  more  rapidly  into  fame.  Before  she  was 
out  of  her  teens  the  world  had  crowned  her  as  "  The  English  Sappho ; " 
society  adored  her  ;  flatteries  sunned  her  path ;  she  walked  in  the 
dreamland  of  literary  glory,  and  she  writes  of  herself  then — 
"  — I  felt  immortal,  for  my  brain  was  drunk  and  mad  with  its 
first  draught  of  fame."  After  some  years  of  literary  toil,  however, 
unfortunately  for  herself,  she  accepted  an  offer  of  marriage 
from  Mr.  Maclean,  then  Governor  of  Cape  Coast  Castle.  It  was  in 
June  1838  they  Were  married,  and  shortly  after  sailed  away  for 
their  African  home.  On  the  loth  of  August  she  first  entered  her 
new  abode,  and  on  the  15th  of  October  she  died  there.  A  grave 
v/as  dug  for  her  in  the  courtyard  of  the  castle,  and  there  she  was 
buried  by  torchlight  on  the  evening  of  her  death. 

"  Years  afterwards,"  says  Mrs.  Hall,  ''  a  distinguished  Irishman, 
Dr.  Madden,  happening  to  visit  Cape  Coast  Castle,  found  the  deso- 
late grave  of  the  poetess  unmarl^ed  by  stone  or  name,  and,  at  his 
own  expense,  he  had  a  white  marble  slab  placed  over  her  remains — 
a  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  her  sweetest  lyrist  which 
England  had  neglected,  but  which,  we  are  proud  to  say,  an  Irish 
heart,  with  the  true  sympathy  for  genius  which  all  the  gifted  feel, 
did  not  fail  to  render."  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hall's  article  on  "  L.  E.  L." 
just  cited  was  copied  into  a  now  extinct  journal,  the  Saunders 
Newsletter,  and  on  the  4th  of  May  1805,  the  following  letter  of 
Dr.  Madden's  was  published  in  the  same  newspaper  : — 

Sir, — In  your  journal  of  the  28th  ult.  there  is  an  admirable  ar- 
ticle on  "  L.  E.  L."  from  the  March  number  of  the  Art  Journal. 
As  there  is  an  error  in  it,  which  attributes  to  me  merit  I  cannot 
claim,  I  would  feel  much  obliged  to  your  kindly  giving  insertion  to 
this  communication.  The  notice  of  that  ill-fated  lady  written  by 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  C.  Hall  is  such  as  might  be  expected  of  intimate 
and  faithful  friends,  and  appears  very  opportunely  at  this  time, 
when  the  memory  of  that  poor  lady  has  been  so  recently  assailed 
and  wronged.  In  that  article  reference  is  made  to  me  in  terms 
which  I  cannot  feel  otherwise  than  grateful  for.  There  is  one 
slight  error,  however,  which  it  is  incumbent  on  me  to  notice.  It  is 
stated  therein  that  in  1840  I  found  the  desolate  grave  of  the  poetess 
unmarked  by  any  monumental  stone.  This  is  quite  true,  and  pro- 
bably if  I  had  not  liappened  to  have  visited  that  place  no  memorial 
of  "  L.  E.  L.'"  would  then  have  been  set  up  in  the  courtyard  of 
Cape  Coast  Castle.  It  is  not  the  fact,  however,  that  at  my  own  ex- 
pense I  had  a  monumental  slab  placed  over  the  remains  of  Mrs. 
Maclean.  It  is  to  the  kindness  of  heart  and  generosity  of  dispo- 
sition of  a  gifted  lady,  now  no  more,  viz.,  the  late  Countess  of 
Blessington,  to  whom  the  merit  is  due  of  commissioning  me,  when 
I  was  about  to  proceed  to  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  on  a  Govern- 


DR,     R.     R.     MADBF.N.  110 

ment  Inquiry  in  connexion  with  the  Siave-Trade,  to  obtain  from 
Captain  Maclean  permission  for  the  erection  of  a  monument,  at  her 
(Lady  Blessington's)  expense,  over  the  remains  of  her  much-loved 
friend,  "  L.  E.  L."  All  the  particulars  of  this  commission,  which 
resulted  in  Captain  Maclean  phicing  a  slab  over  his  wife's  grave, 
wiU  be  found  detailed  in  the  2nd  volume  of  my  work,  The  Life  and 
Correspondence  of  Lady  Blessinrjton  (second  edition,  1855,  p.  207). 

In  March  1842,  Dr.  Madden  was  deputed  to  attend  the  f'rench 
Anti- Slavery  Convention  at  Paris,  where,  at  the  first  session,  which 
was  held  on  the  17th  March,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Duke  de 
Broglie,  he  was  invited  to  deliver  an  address,  translated  by  the 
president,  on  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  French  colonies.  Sub- 
sequently he  had  interviews  with  several  of  the  French  Ministers, 
by  whom  he  was  well  received,  as  well  as  by  Monseigneur  Afire,  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  M.  Lamartine,  Odillon  Barrot,  Isambert,  De  Ton- 
queville,  the  Abbe  Desgennets,  Lafayette,  the  Marquis  de  Harcourt, 
Dela  Rocliefoucauld,  Dufau,  Comte  de  la  Borde,  and  other  leading 
French  statesmen  and  literary  men  of  that  day.  The  history  of 
Dr.  Madden's  active  official  labours  in  the  Anti-Slavery  cause  may 
be  here  closed.  But  only  with  the  last  moment  of  existence  did  his 
earnest  sympathy  and  co-operation  by  pen  and  voice  in  battle  against 
that  infamous  traffic  in  stolen  men,  which  unfortunately  still  sur- 
vives in  "  the  Dark  Continent,"  ever  cease. 

Amongst  the  literary  men  of  whose  acquaintance  lie  had  thus  an 
opportunity  of  renewing  in  Paris,  the  most  distinguished  were  the 
poet  Beranger,  and  the  gifted  but  unfortunate  Abbe  De  Lamenais, 
with  both  of  whom  he  remained  intimate  throughout  life.  In  this 
connexion  may  therefore  be  appended  the  following  hitherto  unpub- 
lished account  of  his  acquaintance  with  the  great  French  song-writer. 
" — In  the  year  1811  I  was  introduced  to  Beranger  by  the  Abbe  de 
Lamenais.  Since  that  period  to  the  present  I  have  been  on 
terms  of  friendship  with  him.  During  the  last  five  years  of  my 
son's  education  at  the  Royal  College  of  Versailles  and  the  Ecole 
Central  des  Arts  et  Manufactures  in  Paris,  my  visits  to  the  latter 
city  have  been  frequent,  and  occasionally  my  sojouins  there  were 
of  some  months'  duration.  I  know  not  how  it  was  that  ]3eranger's 
confidence  was  given  to  me  very  soon  after  our  acquaintance,  unless, 
indeed,  that  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  have  enjoyed  that  of  his 
dearest  living  friend,  Lamenais.  Beranger's  abode  at  Passy,  about 
a  league  from  Paris,  when  I  first  knew  him,  was  in  the  Rue 
Vineuse,  No.  21.  The  ''habitat"  of  the  first  living  lyrical  poet 
of  France  was  the  "  skymost "  apartment  of  this  modest  house, 
and  all  the  accommodation  consisted  of  a  saloon  with  an  alcove  at 
one  end,  w^here  the  lowly  bed  stood  of  the  mighty  song-maker 
who  stirred  up  an  entire  nation,  and  struck  down  the  throne  of 
Charles  X,  and  the  old  dynasty  of  the  Bourbons  by  his  lyrics.    The 


IQO  MEMOIRS 


small  saloon,  with  its  plain  furniture,  was  in  keeping  with  the 
simple,  unostentatious  character  and  tastes  of  the  good  old  man  who 
was  seated  there  in  a  meditative  mood  in  his  well-known  antiquated 
elbow  chair.  His  income  was  barel}'  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  ex- 
ist without  getting  into  debt.  To  his  friend  Lafeyette  alone  he  con- 
sented to  be  indebted  for  the  small  provision  which  prevented  him 
from  being  a  pauper  in  his  old  age.  The  personal  appearance  of 
Beranger  was  that  of  a  hale,  kind-hearted,  cheerful  old  man  :  there 
was  depth  of  feeling,  of  honest  sincerit}-,  of  natural  good  common 
sense ;  a  comprehensiveness  of  knowledge  such  as  I  never  observed 
in  any  of  his  countrymen,  and  in  only  one  of  my  own.  The  lirst 
tones  of  Beranger's  voice  set  me  perfectly  at  ease  in  his  presence. 
I  know  not  whether  others  have  remarked  how  far  powerful  is  the 
impression  made  on  the  mind  by  the  tones  of  a  voice  heard  for  the 
first  time.  The  eyes  are  called  the  windows  of  the  soul.  It  does 
not  always  happen  that  the  glass  is  uniformly  fciultless  and  trans- 
parent. But  the  tones  of  the  voice  are  ahvavs  indicative  of  the 
prevailing  turn  of  thought  of  the  individual. 

In  the  summer  of  1840  I  had  the  honour  of  introducing  two 
American  gentlemen  of  literary  standing  to  Beranger.  One 
of  these  was  Mr.  Walsh,  formerly  editor  of  the  North  American 
Quarterly  Bevieiv — an  enlightened  man,  honourably  known  among 
the  learned  in  Europe.  The  other  gentleman  was  a  member  of 
Congress  for  one  of  the  slave-holding  States.  I'he  venerable  poet 
rose  from  his  chair  when  we  were  ushered  into  his  room,  and  I  not 
having  seen  him  for  a  long  time,  he  welcomed  me  in  the  most 
hearty  manner,  and  received  my  two  American  friends  with  more 
than  usual  suavity.  The  fortunes  of  America  were  touched  upon 
by  Beranger  with  a  knowledge  of  the  question  that  was  surprising 
for  a  foreigner  to  possess,  and  with  an  evident  interest  in  the  pros- 
perity of  the  country  he  spoke  about.  But  in  the  midst  of  the 
eulogies  he  was  pronouncing  on  its  institutions,  a  cloud  came  over 
the  features  of  the  old  Republican,  and  in  accents  "more  of  sorrow 
than  of  anger  "  he  asked — '•'  But  why  do  you  make  a  sophism  of 
Republican  institutions  by  suffering  slavery  to  exist  in  a  country 
where  every  man  is  proclaimed  free  and  equal  ?  WTiy  do  jo\i  hurt 
the  character  of  Republicanism  by  making  a  mockery  of  its  theory, 
and  practically  showing  you  have  no' faith  in  the  tenets  you  profess '?  " 

Evidently  pleased  as  he  was  with  his  guests,  delighted  with  the 
conversation  pregnant  with  knowledge  and  experience  of  one  of 
them  (Mr.  Walsh),  and  desirous  of  shewing  all  the  courtesy  possible 
to  two  persons  from  a  country  that  he  sincerely  loved,  he  still  yielded 
nothing  to  their  prejudices.  Nothing,  in  short,  could  be  more 
efFectuaUy  condemnatory  of  American  slavery  than  Beranger's 
words  throughout  this  discussion,  or  less  offensive  than  his  manner, 
even  when  his  language  was  most  energetic, 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  IQI 


CHAPTER    XX. 

ACCOUNT       OF       MADDEN 'S        LITERARY      LABOURS      AND       PUBLISHED 
WORKS. HIS    UNPUBLISHED    AND    POSTHUMOUS    WRITINGS. 

From  the  period  of  his  return  from  the  French  Anti- Slavery  Conven- 
tion the  energies  of  Dr.  Madden's  character  became  chiefly  directed 
into  Kterary  channels,  and  their  force  and  vitality  are  attested  by  the 
long  list  of  works  that  emanated  from  his  prolilic  brain  and  untiring 
pen.  In  a  fragment  headed  "  My  Authorship,"  the  following  refer- 
ence occurs  to  his  early  literary  labours  : — 

"  The  occupation  of  transferring  one's  thoughts  to  paper,  and 
then  printing  and  publishing  them — or,  in  other  words,  with  the 
quill  pen  of  a  feather  from  a  bird's  wing,  steeped  in  a  black  hquid, 
figuring  on  white  paper  shadows  of  things  thought  or  spoken,  and 
then  multiplying  copies  of  the  scrawl  by  the  intervention  of 
machinery — I  commenced  in  my  twenty-second  year.  My  first 
publication  was  a  series  of  letters,  written  in  Italy,  in  the  Morning 
Herald.  These  appeared  as  they  were  written,  and  some  likewise 
from  the  Levant,  and  were  liberally  paid  for  by  the  editor,  "  Little 
Henry  Thwaites."*  I  received  £50  for  them.  My  next  ^^i^ihlica- 
tion  was  in  the  newly-started  literary  journal,  The  AthencBum, 
established  by  Mr.  J.  S.  Buckingham  —  some  letters  on  Egypt  and 
Mahomed  Ali  in  1829.  These  were  gratuitous  contributions.  My 
next  appearance  in  print  was  an  article  in  the  Metropolitan 
Magazine  on  the  last  illness  and  death  of  Mr.  Salt,  the  Abyssinian 
traveller,  in  1880." 

The  Abbe  de  Marolles,  in  the  epistle  dedicatory  to  his  "  Memoirs," 
gives  some  excellent  advice  to  authors  and  persons  intending  to 
pursue  literature  as  a  profession,  and  concludes  thus  : — "  I  do  not 
advise  any  one  of  my  relatives  or  friends  to  apply  himself,  as  I 
have  done,  to  study,  and  particularly  to  the  composition  of  books, 
if  he  thinks  thereby  to  add  to  his  fame  or  fortune."! 

The   uncertainty    of  literary   labour  as  a  source  of  pecuniary 

*  Thwaites  was  a  good  man,  but  a  very  aingiilar  one.  I  was  first  introduced  to  him  in 
1821,  by  my  friend  Mr.  P.  Murjihy  (afterwards  a  County  Court  Judge).  I  was  tlieu  attending 
Georg-^'s  Hospital,  and  had  no  iiJea  of  obtaining  any  coiinsxion  with  the  Press.  Thwaites, 
when  I  first  saw  him  in  the  editor's  room  in  the  office  of  bis  paper,  was  seated  on  a  high  stool 
— an  exceeding  siuall  statue  of  a  man  mounted  on  a  lofty  pedestal,  and  very  much  diminii- bed 
by  elevation.  The  httle  man  talked  with  considerable  animation,  moved  about  on  liis  tripod 
and  quoted  Shakespeare  apropos  to  everything.  He  loved  the  immortal  deer-atealer,  and  so 
did  I,  and  that  was  sympathy.  Every  Sunday  I  used  to  dine  witli  liim  at  his  house  in  Pinilico, 
and  years  afterwards  his  kind ness  was  the  same  to  me,  and  every  Sunday  as  of  old  myself 
and  my  wife  were  his  guests. 

+  The  poor  Abb(^,  by  hi«  own  neconnt,  had  published  l.?3,124  verses,  and  this  was  onlj  one 
portion  of  his  literary  work. 


]-2'2  MEMOIRS 


advantage  was  exemplified  by  Dr.  Madden'a  experience.  For 
whilst  his  earlier  and  lighter  vrorks  on  travel  and  general  literature 
were  most  successful  and  remunerative  to  their  author,  those  later 
and  more  serious  volumes,  which  are  devoted  to  an  important  portion 
of  his  country's  history,  and  the  value  of  which  has  been  recognized 
at  home  and  abroad,  were,  as  will  be  seen  in  a  subsequent  chapter, 
accomplished  at  no  small  sacrifice  of  the  author's  interests  and 
prospects.  Thus,  as  already  mentioned,  his  two  first  works  were 
his  Travels  in  the  East,  in  two  volumes,  and  The  Mussulman, 
a  Novel,  in  three  volumes,  published  by  Colburn  in  1829-30. 
These  went  through  repeated  editions,  and  for  each  he  received 
d6300.  Whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  the  publication  in  after  years 
of  his  most  important  and  most  commended  work,  viz..  The 
History  of  the  United  Irishmen,  the  successive  series  of  which 
were  more  than  once  republished  in  America  as  well  as  in  this 
country,  directly  as  well  as  indirectly,  entailed  very  heavy  losses  on 
the  author.  The  magnitude  of  his  literary  labours,  and  their 
merit,  have  been  referred  to  in  a  biographical  notice  in  the 
University  Magazine: — "  Notwithstanding  the  absorbing  nature  of 
his  public  duties.  Dr.  Madden  found  time  to  cultivate  his  literary 
tastes,  and  acquire  distinction  as  an  author.  In  looking  over  his 
writings,  besides  admiring  their  quality  and  texture,  one  is  amazed 
at  the  quantity,  the  more  so  considering  his  other  avocations.  He 
has  written  largely  and  excellently  in  the  departments  of  politics, 
sociology,  history,  travels,  and  belles  lettres.  His  works  are  so  varied 
a7id  numerous,  amountiny  to  no  less  than  forty -seven  puhlished 
volumes,  besides  a  vast  number  of  contributions  in  prose  and  verse  to 
magazines,  reviews,  and  the  newspaper  press,  with  which  he  was 
connected  during  a  considerable  portion  of  his  early  years — that  we 
cannot  refer  to  them  in  detail,  but  must  content  ourselves  with 
briefly  indicating  some  of  the  most  important.  No  one  who  peruses 
Madden'a  books  can  fail  to  appreciate  their  research,  eloquence, 
and  love  of  Fatherland,  however  much  the  reader  may  dissent  from 
some  of  his  opinions  and  conclusions.  He  traces  the  account 
of  his  country's  vicissitudes  with  power  and  beauty,  and  leaves 
on  record  a  great  amount  of  valuable  historic  lore." 

This  vast  quantity  of  literary  work  was  accomplished  amidst  the 
continual  interruptions  of  busy  official  or  professional  occupations, 
and  would  have  been  impossible  save  to  a  man  of  exceptional 
energy  and  untiring  industry.  Nor  even  then  could  he  have  left 
behind  the  evidences  of  erudition  contained  in  these  many  volumes* 
had  it  not  been  for  the  inteUigent  and  self-sacrificing  co-operation  of 
his  no  less  gifted  and  devoted  wife,  by  whom  all  his  writings  were 
copied  and  revised  for  the  press.     In  this  way  were  produced  the 

^  Vide  Appendix. 


DR.     R.     R.     MADDEN.  1Q3 


long  series  of  works  just  referred  to,  in  the  writing  of  which,  for  a 
great  portion  of  their  Uves,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Madden  burned  the  mid- 
night lamp,  being  often  found  still  plying  their  busy  pens  in  the 
early  morning  by  the  re-wakening  household  when  about  to  resume 
the  duties  of  another  day. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

POKTICAL    WRITINGS,    SOME    SPECIMENS    OF    THESE. 

In  the  foregoing  pages  some  references  have  been  made  to  Dr. 
Madden's  poetical  writings.  Amongst  these  are  included,  firstly,  a 
volume  of  religious  poetry  entitled  Breathings  of  Prayer,  of 
which  only  twenty  copies  were  printed  for  private  circulation  in 
Havana  in  1838 ;  secondly,  a  volume  of  Poems  hj  a  Cuban 
Slave,  translated  from  the  Spanish,  and  published  in  1840  ;  thirdly, 
A  Hudihrastic  Epic  Poem,  which  remains  unpublished ;  and 
fourthly,  The  Easter  Offering,  published  in  1850.  Besides  these, 
from  time  to  time  he  contributed  a  great  amount  of  poetry 
to  the  various  annuals,  magazines,  and  other  periodicals  of  his 
day,  and,  moreover,  has  left  two  large  quarto  volumes  of  unpubhshed 
lines,  entitled  Rhymes  of  a  Bamhler  in  Many  Lands.  Of  these, 
since  their  author's  death,  several  have  been  accorded  a  place  in 
the  columns  of  various  journals  and  periodicals  at  home  and  abroad. 
A  small  collection  of  his  poems,  under  the  nom  de  plume  of 
'•  Ierne,"  has  also  been  pubhshed  by  Messrs.  Duffy  in  a  posthu- 
mous volume,  edited  by  the  late  Rev.  C.  P.  Mechan,  entitled 
Literary  Remains  of  the  United  Irishmen. 

That  Dr.  Madden's  abilities  as  a  poet  are  not  better  known  ia 
perhaps  sufficiently  explained  by  the  circumstance  that  to  few  of 
his  lines  was  his  name  ever  appended,  the  vast  majority  of  them  being 
either  signed  l)y  the  nom  de  j^l^fme  above  referred  to,  or  merely 
by  the  letter  ••  X.""  This  probably  was  owing  to  his  high  ideal  of 
what  he  considered  true  poetry  as  distinguished  from  rhyme,  and  to 
his  own  undue  depreciation  of  any  personal  claim  to  a  share  in 
the  former.  Of  his  verses,  therefore,  wo  may  here  msert  a  few 
specimens,  selecting  at  random  the  shortest  of  these  written  at 
different  epochs  of  life,  as  we  venture  to  think  that  some  of  these, 
as  well  as  many  of  the  numerous  still  unpublished  poems  which  at 
his  death  were  left  ready  for  the  printer,  might  probably  be  found 
to  justify  the  criticism  of  the  editor  of  a  recent  journal,  who,  in 
referring  to  this  collection,  says — 

•'Some  of  these  poems  are  really  exquisite  compositions.     Many 


1Q4  HIEMOIP.S 


of  them,  if  set  to  music,  would  make  very  popular  pieces  ;  others, 
although  written  many  years  ago,  are  especially  appropriate  at  the 
present  day.  All  of  them,  whatever  their  particular  merit  may  he, 
are  of  a  high  order.  It  is  needless  for  us  to  remark  that  the  name 
of  this  famous  Irish  author  is  honoured  by  Irishmen  all  the  world 
over,  and  we  are  sure  the  work  of  his  pen  will  be  read  eagerly." — 
The  Dublin  Journal,  June  1880. 

LES   EAUX   DE    VIOHY. 

Have  you  been  to  charming  Vichy, 
Famed  for  spas,  whose  taste  is  lishy ; 
Tbrong'd  by  gouty,  joint-racked  sinners, 
Fond  of  too  luxurious  dinners  ? 

Have  you  drauk  les  Eaux  de  Vichy, 

At  each  source  described  by  Eicci, 

Oulp'd  enough  "  Chomel,"  "  Grandgrille,"  or 

"  Celestins  "  to  drown  a  miller  ? 

Tumblers,  six  a  day  of  Vichy 
Waters,  turbulent  and  pitchy, 
Alkaline,  or  cold  and  nauseous, 
Have  you  found  extremely  mawkish  ? 

English  tourists  rush  to  Vichy, 

Hear  of  cures  of  gout  so  twitchy, 

Lured  from  Harrogate  or  Buxton 

By  their  wives  and  daughters  coax'd  on. 

Irish  folks,  too,  rave  of  Vichy, 
Kail  at  Irish  spas,  beseech  ye 
Talk  no  more  of  Lisdoonvarna, 
]M allow,  Lucan,  Toomavara  ! 

From  the  land  of  saints  to  Vichy, 
Must  he  come  for  water,  which  he 
Has  at  home,  more  joraised  than  merits, 
Duly  mixed,  of  course,  with  spirits? 

Nothing  will  go  down  but  Vichy 
Waters  ;  hence  the  looks  so  wishy- 
Washy,  that  were  once  so  ruddy. 
Redolent  of  health  and  toddy. 

I  am  sick  of  charming  Vichy, 
Wish  myself  at  Rue  de  Clichy  ; 
Sick  of  spas  and  baths,  park  strollings, 
Breakfast  bells  and  dinner  toUings. 

VicMj,  August,  1868, 


tn,    R.    R.    MA.DDEN.  125 


SPAIN. 

Hm-rah  for  the  mountains  of  Spain, 

Its  sierras  of  grandeur  sublime ! 
For  the  glories  again  and  again 

Of  its  beautiful  shores  and  its  cUme  ! 

Hun-ah  for  the  "  Land  of  the  Sun," 
Of  the  olive,  the  orange,  and  vine  ! 

No  sunbeams  on  earth  ever  shone 
With  such  life  breathing  joyance  as  thine. 

Without  measure  or  stint,  at  each  pore. 
Drink  them  in  ;  quaff  the  nectar  likewise 

Of  the  soft  balmy  air  from  the  shore. 
That  is  racy  of  southern  skies. 

Oh  !  bask  in  these  sunbeams,  my  boy  ! 

Let  the  breeze  from  the  shore,  with  the  freight 
Of  its  perfume,  and  healing,  bring  joy 

To  thy  spirit,  that  droop'd  so  of  late. 

Hurrah  for  the  fields  of  renown 

Of  the  brave  cavaliers  of  Castile  ! 
For  those  triumphs  of  ages  bygone. 

Which  Granada's  grey  ruins  reveal ! 

Hurrah  for  the  Cid  ("ampeadoi". 

And  the  sweep  of  his  chivalrous  sword  ! 

For  the  scenes  of  his  wars  with  "  tlie  Moor," 
Where  he  scatter'd  the  infidel  horde  ! 

Hurrah  for  the  land  that  of  yore 
Was  of  faith  without  stigma  or  stain  ! 

For  the  saints,  and  the  shrines,  and  the  lore, 
And  the  legends  of  Catholic  Spain  1 

Hurrah  for  the  pilgrims  of  old. 

For  the  paths  which  Loyola  once  trod  ; 

On  this  mountain  his  name  was  enroll'd 
In  the  lists  of  the  servants  of  God. 

Hare  his  vigils  were  kept  by  you  porch, 
And  his  sword  on  the  altar  was  laid  ; 

And  the  young  cavalier  in  this  church, 
A  true  soldier  of  Christ  was  then  made. 

Away  with  the  insolent  toss 

Of  the  sceptical  Pharisee's  head, 
At  the  s!:riue  of  the  Virgin,  the  Cross, 

And  the  altars,  where  Faith  is  not  dead ! 


Liuei  urittea  on  the  okores  of  Catalonia  and  AudaluBia,  iu  Feb.,  1858. 


1Q6  MEMOIRS 


THE  DOCTOR'S  APOLOGY  FOR  NOT  CONTRIBUTING  TO 
MISS  A.  G'S  SCRAP-BOOK. 

The  god  of  poetry  of  yore 

Was  god  of  physic  too  ; 
But  Phcebus  has  two  strings  no  more 

To  his  celestial  bow. 

In  golden  car,  that  pays  no  tax, 
He  spreads  from  sphere  to  sphere : 

But  jobs  no  coach,  and  kills  no  hacks, 
To  cure  diseases — here. 

Then  how  can  one  who  bows  before 

An  iEsculapian  shrine 
Presume  to  bend  in  raptures  o'er 

Apollo's  lute  divine  ? 

A  doctor,  ma'am,  would  burn  his  wig 

Before  he'd  write  a  sonnet, 
And  deem  it  truly  infra  difj 

To  waste  a  moment  on  it. 

By  scanning  feet  a   surgeon's  skill 

Gains  little  approbation; 
Parnassus  high  is  not  the  hill 

Whence  comes  his  inspu'ation. 

His  Helicon  is  Lincoln's  Inn, 

The  "College"  his  Arcadia; 
Hie  classic  lore, — its  origin 

In  Cooper's  Cyclopaedia. 

Did  Hunter  ever  stoop  to  rhyme, 

Or  scribble  couplets,  prithee? 
Or  who  could  ever  lay  the  crime 

Of  verse  to  Abernethy  ? 

What  grave  physician  ever  penned 

A  scrap-book  panegyric  ? 
Would  Jenner,  think  you,  condescend 

To  perpetrate  a  lyric  ? 

'Tis  not  for  him,  much  less  for  me, 

A  poor  unlettered  Gaslen, 
To  play  the  bard— a  part  which  he 

And  I  would  surely  fail  in. 

For  who  of  thee  could  make  his  themej  -. 

And  think  of  his  vocation, — 
Of  beauty  sing,  and  fondly  dream 

To  fly  its  fascination? 

Cheltenkam,  1828, 


DR.    R.    E.    MADDEN.  127 


THE   DYING  TRAVELLER 

It  is  not  the  sickness  that  prays  on  my  frame, 

It  is  not  the  tortimng  pain, 
It  is  not  the  terror  of  death,  nor  the  shame 

Of  the  struggle,  which  makes  me  complain  ; 
Oh,  no  1  I  could  yield  me  this  night  to  the  grave, 

And  encounter  its  gloom  undismayed, 
If  one  friendly  regard  its  encouragement  gave, 

And  my  sphit's  disorder  allayed. 

Ev'ry  object  around  awakens  a  thought 

Of  the  home  I  may  never  behold ; 
Every  sound  of  the  voice  of  the  stranger  is  fraught 

With  remembrance  of  accents  of  old  ; 
But  the  sands  of  the  desert,  the  waves  of  the  deep, 

Are  between  me  and  all  I  hold  dear. 
And  the  wild  Arab  dwells  where  I'm  destined  to  sleep. 

Where  the  grave  has  no  hallowing  tear. 

The  close  of  existence  away  from  our  friends 

Is  a  dreary  and  desolate  doom  : 
How  cold  is  the  look  of  the  stranger  who  tends 

On  the  sufferings  which  lead  to  the  tomb  ! 
His  apathy  yields  but  to  bigotry's  zeal. 

Which,  on  faculties  drooping,  would  fain 
Its  dogmas  enforce,  and  the  dying  appeal 

Of  the  sinner  would  dare  to  arraign. 

Officious  fanatic  !  is  colour  or  creed 

Of  man's  choice  ? — or  his  power  to  change  ? 
From  the  faith  of  our  fathers  what  effort  indeed 

iNlay  the  heart's  early  homage  estrange. 
In  moments  like  these,  when  tlie  spirit  has  need 

Of  communing  with  Mercy  above, 
Are  themes  controversial  the  topics  to  lead 

Our  last  thoughts  to  the  Father  of  Love  ? 

But  brief  is  the  pang  !     I  shall  soon  be  at  reat ; 

Ere  the  sun  of  the  morrow  appear, 
The  illusions  of  life  and  its  follies  shall  cease 

To  awaken  a  hope  or  a  fear. 
While  I  breathe  shall  the  name  of  my  country  be  blest, 

One  loved  image  recalled  to  the  close  ; 
Still  homeward  each  thought  wing  its  way  to  the  West, 

Till  the  weaiy  heart  sink  in  repose. 

*  Lines  written  'ui  u  oi.:k  ])^i  at  the  Gambia..  West  Coast  of  Africa  1840 


1Q8  MEMOIBS 


THE  SWEET  VALE  OF  OVOCA.* 

When  you're  sick  of  Dublin  city, 
Tired  of  Kingstown  pier  and  jetty, 
Ogling  promenaders  pretty, 

Off  at  once  to  sweet  Ovoca ! 

If  you  feel  by  no  means  jolly — 
Cranky,  moody,  melancholy — 
Weary  quite  of  human  folly. 

Take  the  train  and  try  Ovoca  ! 

When  you're  gouty  and  rheumatic, 
Bilious,  nervous,  or  hepatic, 
Backd  with  aches  and  pains  erratic, 

Seek  for  health  at  sweet  Ovoca  ! 

If  you're  plunged  in  joint-stock  troubles. 
Market-rigging  schemes  and  bubbles. 
Railway  "  floating"  specs,  from  hobbles, 
Fly  forthwith  to  sweet  Ovoca. 

When  you're  mind's  o'erworked  and  jaded, 
Its  strength  impaired  and  freshness  faded, 
By  studious  toil,  oh !  be  persuaded, 

Fag  no  more,  but  face  Ovoca. 

If  no  theme  your  mind  engrosses 
But  one  thought  of  gains  and  losses, 
And  contingent  cares  and  crosses. 

Change  the  scene  for  sweet  Ovoca. 

When  you're  bored  with  parsons  grumbling 
Factions  vile  all  interests  jumbling, 
Dizzy's  ground  and  lofty  tumbling, 

liCave  all  humbugs  for  Ovoca. 

If  you  love  the  face  of  Nature 

Eden-Hke  in  every  feature, 

And  the  comforts  men  call  creature, 

Start  for  Hunter's  and  Ovoca. 

There  are  cures  for  spirits  sinking. 
Too  much  toiHng,  too  much  thinking. 
Thrashing  books  and  paper  inking, 
In  the  vale  of  sweet  Ovoca. 


A  Paradise  without  temptation, 
There's  nothing  like  it  in  creation, 
For  peace,  repose,  and  recreation, 

All  are  found  in  sweet  Ovoca. 

Woudenlridge  Hotel,  11th  August. 

*  Dcbcribed  by  Moore— prescribed  by  Madden. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  129 


LINES    TO    ACCOMPANY    A    POKTBAIT    OF    E.    R.    M. 

This  here  is  a  portrait  of  one  Mister  Madden, 
Who  saw  many  lands,  but  not  one  that  he  had  in 
A  rood  of  the  soil  he  could  call  his  ovfu  foddeen, 
For  pratees  to  grow  in,  or  cabin  to  lodge  in ; 
Not  one  dirty  acre  in  tillage  or  grass 
To  bequeath  or  to  sell  or  to  mortgage,  alas  ! 

Who  spoke  divers  tongues,  many  books  read  and  wrote, 
And  therefore  with  those  who  did  not  his  repute 
Was  not  very  good,  for  such,  one  who  dares 
To  think  for  himself  is  set  down,  it  appears, 
Of  a  dangerous  class  and  a  free-thinking  school, 
That  should  be  tabooed  as  a  general  rule. 

The  likeness  above  is  of  one  who  a  smile 
At  athletic  games  never  won  from  Carlisle  ; 
Of  field  sports,  moreover,  was  not  much  a  lover, 
And  never  shot  pheasant,  or  partridge,  or  plover ; 
Nor  took  much  delight  in  the  cattle-show  twaddle, 
(~)f  bullocks  and  pigs  hardly  able  to  waddle. 

Who  knew  very  little  of  stock,  but  wrote  much 

Of  rebels  and  wrongs,  and  endeavoured  to  touch 

Men's  hearts  with  theh  sufferings ;  but  none  except  fools 

Would  feel  any  pity  for  Irish  or  Poles, 

As  Albert  to  Humboldt  observed  very  cutely, 

And  argued  indeed  for  a  Prince  most  astutely. 

Who  fought  many  battles  for  slaves  he  could  boast, 

In  Cuba,  Jamaica,  on  Africa's  coast ; 

Might  vaunt,  too,  elsewhere  of  the  saving  of  life. 

Which  perhaps  for  a  trav'Uer's  career  which  was  rife 

With  many  a  failing,  a  fault,  and  defect, 

Some  little  amends  might  be  hoped  to  effect. 

So  much  for  the  portrait  of  one  who  absurdly 

Made,  too,  small  account  of  the  int'rests  called  worldly, 

Who  lived  in  the  past  a  deal  more  than  the  present, 

A  course  in  this  country  that's  prudent  and  pleasant 

For  men  who  are  ardent,  and  honest,  and  true 

To  the  land  of  their  birth  in  its  weal  or  its  woe. 

The  portrait  in  fine  of  a  man  who  thinks  Whigs 

And  Tories  are  like  one  another  as  figs ; 

And  never  could  well  understand  why  'twas  thought 

The  brain  of  a  Briton  was  furnished  and  fraught 

With  intellect  brighter  and  better  withal 

Than  that  of  the  Celt  of  this  land,  or  of  Gaul. 

"  A  mere  Irishman,"  in  this  picture  you've  got, 
Who  was  up  in  the  year  "  '98  " — a  red  hot 
Young  rebel  of  course,  and  "  in  arms"  of  his  mother 
Mistook  not  the  year  of  his  birth  for  some  other ; 
No  wonder  the  "  boy  "  of  that  time  seems  to  be 
Reproduced  in  the  man  now  of  three  score  and  three. 

10 


130  MEMOIRS 


TO    HABEIET.* 

When  I  am  weary  and  deprest, 
And  anxious  cares  invade  my  breast, 
Or  sorrow  has  become  my  guest, 
I  think  of  thee  ! 

And  when  ray  bosom  lord  once  more 
"  Sits  lightly  on  his  throne,"  I  soar 
In  spirit  as  I  used  of  yore. 

And  dream  of  thee ! 

When  worldly  ills  do  weigh  me  down, 
And  friends  fall  off,  and  some  do  frown 
Who  smiled  before  in  times  bye  gone, 
I  think  of  thee  ! 

When  some  success  has  crowned  my  toil, 
And  hopes  revive  that  drooped  meanwhile, 
I  feel  no  joy  in  fortunes  smile, 
Apart  from  thee ! 

Nay,  when  I  tread  the  distant  shores 
Of  sun-bright  lands,  where  nature  grows 
Most  gorgeous  gifts,  those  precious  stores 
I'd  share  with  thee. 

When  stars  above  and  scenes  beneath 
That  teem  with  poetry,  no  breath 
Of  praise  call  forth — as  still  as  death, 
I  think  of  thee. 

When  treason  makes  ones  shaken  trust 
Swing  from  its  moorings,  tempest  tost. 
And  faith  in  man  is  almost  lost, 
I  think  of  thee. 

When  the  fierce  war  with  life  doth  rage 
For  gold,  that  man  with  man  doth  wage, 
Thou  art  the  treasure  doth  engage 

All  thoughts  of  mine ! 

When  scenes  are  mine,  like  those  famed  isles 
That  ever  bask  in  summer  smiles. 
Tricked  out  in  beautie's  ocean  spoils, 
I  think  of  thee  ! 

When  stars  that  rule  the  traitor's  fate, 
To  regions  south  where,  throned  in  state, 
Death  holds  high  court,  early  and  late, 
I  think  of  thee  ! 

Jklre.  Harriet  X.  Madden,  born  in  Loudon,  1802,  died  at  Booterstownj  Dublin,  Feb.  7tb,1888. 


DK.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  ISl 


Or  when  life's  ruling  passion  looks 
For  dead  men's  thoughts  embalmed  in  books  : 
Or  Nature's  lines  in  living  brooks, 
I  think  of  thee  I 

When  youthful  visions  happily  rise 
In  fairy  form  and  brightest  guise, 
And  flit — too  fast — before  my  eyes, 
I  think  of  thee  ! 

And  \vhen  they're  gone,  and  all  is  drear 
And  dark  again,  my  heart  flies  where 
Thou  art,  and  thus  its  hopes  1  cheer. 
With  thoughts  of  thee  ! 
Havana^  1839. 


TO    THE    AUTHOK'S    WIFE.* 

Oh,  woman  !  in  our  days  of  pride. 
In  manhoods  prime,  when  we  confide 
In  strength  of  will  and  power  of  frame 
To  conquer  fortune,  fate,  or  fame  ! 
How  ill  do  we  appreciate 
Those  tender  cares  we  shared  of  laie; 
Thy  gentle  councils— all,  in  fine. 
Of  such  unselfishness  as  thine  ! 

Oh,  woman  !  in  the  time  of  need. 
When  friends  fall  off,  false  lights  mislead 
And  projects  fail,  and  health  and  strcngtl 
And  pride  of  life  break  down  at  leugfch — 
Experience  sad,  enlightened  thus, 
Brings  all  its  truth  to  bear  on  us, 
And  all  thy  love  and  faith,  so  fast 
And  strong,  is  duly  prized  at  last. 


*  Written  in  i  Igiers,  16(1. 


16* 


i32  MEMOIRS 


ON    THE    DEATH    OF    AN    INFANT. 

The  sea  was  smooth  and  bright  the  shore, 

A  cloudless  sky  above, 
But  frail  the  little  bark  that  bore 

A  mother's  freight  of  love. 

It  danced  upon  the  morning  tide, 
And  mocked  a  mother's  fears, 

An  object  of  a  moment's  pride, 
A  subject  soon  of  tears. 

The  sun  is  gone,  the  night  is  dark, 

The  sea  is  ruffled  o'er ; 
Ah,  me  !  where  is  that  little  bark 

So  lately  left  the  shore  ? 

It  meets  no  more  the  longing  eye, 

It  may  no  more  return, 
The  night  is  past,  no  bark  is  nigh, 

The  mourner's  left  forlorn. 

Yet  weep  not,  though  it  meet  no  more 

Thy  gaze  on  yonder  sea, 
Another  and  a  brighter  shore 

So  smiling  on  its  lee. 

Another  and  a  better  port 

Is  now  its  peaceful  home, 
"Where  wail  or  woe  have  no  resort, 

And  care  may  never  come. 

St.  Leonard'Sf  1831. 


THE    LADY    PEBPLEXED. 

As  pure  a  breast  as  ever  teemed 
With  hallowed  love's  devotion. 

Thus  vented,  or  at  least  thus  seemed 
To  vent,  its  soft  emotion; 

A  soldier  here, — a  parson  there  I 
Oh,  which  way  shall  I  turn ; 

How  hard  to  chose  'twixt  such  a  pair, 
Or  either  have  to  spurn. 

The  parson  is  indeed — divine, 
The  soldier,  too,  is  killing  ; 

One  preys  upon  this  heart  of  mine, 
The  other  sets  it  thrilling. 

The  feelings  doth  the  flesh  impart, 
The  spirit  must  control; 

I  love  the  soldier  in  my  heart. 
The  parson  in  my  soul. 

Cheltenham,  1830. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  l33 


EXTEMPORE  LINES  (A  L'ARABE)  ADDRESSED  TO  ] 

THE  COUNTESS  OF  BLESSINGTON.  j 

If  e'er  the  price  of  tinder  rises,  • 

To  smoking  as  I'm  giren,  j 

I  light  my  pipe  at  your  bright  eyes  j 

And  steal  my  fire  from  heaven.  ■ 

I 

In  Paymin  climes,  when  forced  to  sip  { 

Cold  water  thro'  devotion,  i 

I'll  deem  the  goblet  touched  your  lips,  j 

And  nectarize  my  potion.  . ! 

And  when  the  sun's  eclipse  I'd  vie^ 

Without  a  thought  of  terror,  ! 

I  '11  only  have  to  fancy  you  . 

Had  breathed  upon  your  mirror. 

If  Nature's  beauty  I  would  trace  | 

In  all  its  brightness  clearly. 

Its  outline  pencilled  on  your  face  j 

I'll  have  to  copy  merely.  j 

But  that  sweet  portraiture  of  love, 

If  made  to  meet  my  notions,  ' 

The  limner  of  the  heart  should  prove  | 

A  Claude  of  soft  emotions.  \ 
Rome,  1828. 


FATHER  MATTHEW.*  ^  ,j 

He  lives  in  our  hearts  and  his  image  ia  there, 

And  each  line  of  that  face  breathes  a  spirit  of  pray'r ;  -• 

It  beams  with  the  light  which  the  primitive  fold 

Beheld  in  the  looks  of  Apostle  of  old. 

A  message  of  peace  and  of  tidings  most  blest  \ 

Seems  to  dwell  on  those  lips  and  to  stir  in  that  breast,  j 

And  the  language  of  love,  in  regards  so  benign,  , 

Has  the  force  and  the  truth  of  a  mission  divine.  j 

Oh  !  it  is  not  the  prudence  or  wisdom  of  man,  \ 

Or  philosophy's  lore,  in  those  featm-es  we  scan ;  j 

But,  the  servant  of  God,  whom  we  love  and  revere 

He  has  come  on  a  mission  of  peace  to  our  land,  J 

And  his  voice  has  gone  forth,  and  his  counsel  shall  stand.  | 

His  accents  shaU  drown  the  reviler's  complaints.  | 

And  the  land  that  of  old  was  the  Island  of  Saints, 

Again  shall  rejoice,  and  the  ancient  renown, 

Of  her  Priests  and  her  People  again  be  her  crown. 

•  Written  tmaer  a  portrait  of  the  Apostle  of  Temperance. 


134  MEMOIRS 


TO     CUBA. 
Cuba  !  of  what  avail  that  thou  art  fair  ! 

Pearl  of  the  seas,  the  pride  of  the  Antilles  ! 
If  thy  poor  sous  have  still  to  see  thee  share 

The  pangs  of  bondage,  and  its  thousand  ills  ? 

Of  what  avail  the  verdure  of  thy  hills  ? 
The  purple  bloom  the  coffee  plain  displays  ; 

Thy  cane's  luxuriant  growth,  whose  culture  fills 
More  graves  than  famine,  or  the  sword  finds  ways 
To  glut  with  victims  calmly  as  it  slays  ? 

Of  what  avail  that  thy  sweet  streams  abound 

With  precious  ore,  if  wealth  there's  none  to  buy 
Thy  children's  rights,  and  not  one  grain  is  found 

For  learning's  shrine,  or  for  the  altar  nigh. 

Of  poor,  forsaken,  downcast  liberty  ? 
Of  what  avail  the  riches  of  thy  port, 

Forests  of  masts,  and  ships  from  every  sea, 
If  trade  alone  is  free,  and  man  the  sport. 
The  spoil  of  trade,  bears  wrongs  of  ev'ry  sort  ? 

Cuba,  oh  Cuba,  when  they  call  thee  fair. 
And  rich  and  beautiful,  the  Queen  of  isles  ! 

Star  of  the  West,  and  ocean's  gem  most  rare  I 
Oh,  say  to  them  who  mock  thee  with  such  wiles  : 
Take  off  these  flowers,  and  view  these  lifeless  spoils 

That  wait  the  worm ;  behold  the  hues  beneath 
The  pale  cold  cheek,  and  seek  for  living  smiles 

Where  beauty  lies  not  in  the  arms  of  death. 

And  bondage  taints  not  with  its  poisoned  breath. 

Havana,  1839. 


LINES    WRITTEN    AT    ST.    HELENA    (1849). 
Rival  of  Cnesar  !  Victor  of  thy  day  ! 

What  is  the  sum  of  all  thy  vast  renown  ? 
Jena,  Marengo,  Austerlitz,  Le  Haye, 

And  Waterloo,  are  wanting  to  its  crown. 

What  has  thy  mission  been  ?     To  pull  down  thrones, 
Trample  on  Kings,  their  serfs  again  to  bind  ; 

To  lavish  gore,  unmoved  by  tears  or  groans, 
And  deem  it  glory  to  afflict  mankind  ! 

What  hast  thou  left  thy  country  in  bequest 
For  all  the  ills  incurred  or  caused  by  war  ? 

Or  good  conferred  on  Europe,  wrong  redressed. 
Or  right  maintained  at  home,  or  yet  afar  ? 

Kings  in  their  strength,  like  you,  oppress  again ; 

People  are  slaves  as  they  have  been  before : 
What  was  the  end  of  all  thy  glory  then  ? 

How  small  and  vain  this  mission  of  an  hour  ! 

A  hero,  doomed  to  perish  on  a  rock 
In  the  wide  ocean,  far  from  ev'ry  scene 

Of  former  triumph,  spared  for  ev'ry  shock 
Of  adveree  fortune,— this  thy  doom  has  been. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  135 


WOMAN'S     WORK      AND     MISSION.* 

To  woman's  mission  might  supreme  assigned 

Life's  noblest  aims  in  mercy  to  mankind  ; 

To  teach,  to  soothe,  to  succour,  humanize, 

To  elevate,  retrieve,  and  civilize  ; 

Aims  far  beyond  all  those  of  wealth  and  pow'r, 

Of  science,  physics,  pliilosophic  lore, 

Or  ends  of  vain  pursuits,  with  tumult,  strife, 

In  senates,  schools,  in  sects  and  factions  rife, 

Or  triumphs  gained  at  far  too  great  a  cost 

For  influence  that's  feminine  to  boast. 


For  it  unsuited  are  all  scenes  where  small 
Ambitions  reign,  and  selfish  schemes  enthrall ; 
111  with  the  worldling's  views  of  life  accords 
The  temper' d  ardour  of  the  ways  and  words 
And  spell  of  woman's  gently-won  dominion 
O'er  heart  and  mind,  affection  and  opinion  ; 
Seek  not  that  power  in  fashion's  iiauuting  train, 
Apparel — prattle  frivolous  and  vain. 
In  modish  cliques  you  will  not  find  it  there, 
Its  force  and  virtue  must  be  sought  elsewhere. 


That  potent  influence  for  good  is  found 
Wherever  human  miseries  abound  ; 
In  scenes  and  on  occasions  it  is  shown 
With  strength  of  mind  and  purpose  all  its  own 
With  grace  and  goodness  suitably  allied, 
In  God's  own  cause  of  mercy  well  employed. 
In  woman's  work,  and  never  done  with  more 
Success  than  when  the  suffering  and  the  poor 
Thus  served  or  saved  are  women,  be  it  known, 
To  woman's  praise  and  honour,  her's  alone. 

God  speed  the  work  of  woman's  mission  blest, 

Wherever  done,  in  our  own  land — still  best ; 

Give  it  success,  not  for  the  sake  alone 

Of  those  it  serves,  but  of  those  whose  crown 

Of  glory  here  is  won  by  that  success 

In  soothing  pain,  misfortune,  and  distress. 

Plead  for  that  cause,  its  objects,  and  its  aims, 

All  ye  who  love  the  memories  and  names 

Most  dear  to  Christians  !  Sanctify  the  fact 

Of  woman's  mission,  thus  in  thought  and  act ! 


*  Inscribed  to  the  late  Mrs.  Harriet  Madden,  1870. 


136  MEMOIRS 


ON    BEGINNING    TO    GKOW    OLD.' 

In  Nature's  volume, — verse  and  page 
Known  once  as  well  almost  as  prayers, — 

'Tis  writ  that  "  All  the  world's  a  stage, 
And  all  the  men  and  women  players." 

This  stage,  however,  stands  in  need 
Of  worthy  men  like  Job  for  actors  ; 

But  bookish,  bardish  folks,  indeed. 
Make  very  poor  dramatic  factors. 

They  could  perhaps  play  Jacques,  and  once 
Might  "  gentle  lovers  "  parts  have  taken ; 

But  Romeo's  past,  and  years  announce 
That  Hamlet  soon  must  be  forsaken. 

For  these  too  old,  too  young  for  Lear : 
Alas !  what  intermediate  station 

Remains  to  choose  ?  The  Drama  here 
Begins  to  fail  in  recreation. 

For  one  at  least  who's  dreamt  his  dreams 
Of  early  love  and  joys  romantic, 

And  deemed  not  always,  as  he  deems, 
Of  life  and  all  its  pleasures  frantic. 

For  one  at  twenty-eight  who  feels 

His  early  notions  daily  alter  ; 
And  even  then  whose  look  reveals 

What  it  mip;ht  baffle  tongue  to  falter. 


OLD    BOOKS    ABANDONED. 

"Farewell  at  once,  for  once,  for  now  and  ever. "—Richard  II. 

I  loved  old  books,  I  must  confess, 

*'  Not  wisely,  but  too  well  " — unduly  ; 

Perhaps  I  love  them  even  yet. 
As  much  as  ever,  and  as  truly. 

I  lived  in  them  :  they  were  to  me 
A  world  of  wealth  and  priceless  treasure 

They  served  me  for  society. 

Secured  me  peace,  content,  and  pleasure. 

They're  gone,  and  to  the  past  no  more  may  roam 
From  ponderous  folios,  well  collated. 

To  pigmy  Elzevii-'s,  from  tome 
To  tome  of  learning  concentrated. 

They're  gone,  my  auction  rounds  are  done, 
And  my  last  sale  has  been  attended  ; 

"  Othello's  occupation's  gone," 
And  my  "big  wars  "  for  books  are  ended. 

♦  Written  iu  Eg>pt  in  1826. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  137 


Perhaps  'tis  better  to  forget 

All  vain  pursuits,  each  fleeting  pleasure 
To  feel  this  house  of  mine  to  set 

In  order  needs  a  little  leisure. 

The  well-known  voice  of  one  long  dead, 
Whose  tones  can  be  forgotten  never, 

I  think  I  hear,  and  words  are  said, 
With  wisdom  fraught,  as  his  were  ever. 

The  future,  not  the  past,  the  mind 
Of  age  shall  fill ;  few  books  are  needed 

For  it,  save  those  in  which  men  find 
Eternal  truths  and  interests  pleaded. 

3,  Vernon  Terrace,  Booterstoivn,  1865. 


SCIATICA.* 

What  shames  the  doctor's  art  and  skill, 
Defies  the  power  of  draught  and  pill. 
And  racks  the  wretch  it  will  not  kill '? 

Sciatica. 

What  wicked  sprite  draws  nigh 
With  mace  and  mallet  raised  on  high, 
And  smites  him  on  the  hip  and  thigh  ? 

Sciatica. 

What  name  is  to  the  torture  given, 
By  wedge,  by  mace,  and  mallet  driven. 
Bight  down  through  nerve  and  fascia  riven  ? 

Sciatica. 

What  call  you  the  sensation  dread 

Of  rats  that  gnaw  your  limbs,  with  red- 

Hot  iron  teeth,  when  you're  in  bed  ? 

Sciatica. 

What  brings  the  tortured  wight  to  feel 
His  sinews  crushed  from  head  to  heel. 
As  in  a  vice  with  screw  of  steel? 

Sciatica. 

What  makes  the  stout  man  writhe  and  groan, 

The  sweat  of  agony  flow  down 

His  forehead,  cold  as  death  or  stone  ? 

Sciatica. 

What's  worse  to  bear  than  bores  and  fools 
The  cant  of  factions,  sects  and  schools. 
And  all  the  shams  self-interest  rules  ? 

Sciatica. 

What  is  it  patience  must  endure. 
Would  fain  control,  but  cannot  cure, 
Yet  may  survive,  as  friends  assure  ? 

Sciatica. 
*  Jiines  written  by  a  victim  in  a  fit  of  pain  and  paroxysm  of  furv. 


138  MEMOIRS  I 

I 

I 

i 

LINES    ON    EXEECISE. 


"  I  hold  the  world  but  as  the  world,  Gratiano, 
A  stage  whore  ev'ry  man  must  play  a  -pavt."— Merchant  of  Venice. 


Some  exercise  their  tongues,  and  they  are  talkers. 
Others  their  legs,  and  these,  of  course,  are  walkers  ; 
Many,  alas  !  their  gullets,  these  are  drinkers  ;  _ 
A  few  their  brains,  and  these  poor  folks  are  thinkers. 

Shrews  exercise  then-  lungs  in  screams  and  screeches 
Soldiers  their  guns  in  batteries  and  breaches  ; 
Big  wigs  their  wits  in  cavils,  quirks,  and  quibbles, 
Doctors  their  skill  in  oracles  like  sybils. 


Landlords  their  rights  in  seizures  and  evictions, 
Tyrants  their  might  in  terrors  and  restrictions  ; 
Ladies  their  eyes,  in  glances  brighter  even 
Than  stars  that  shoot  across  the  face  of  heaven. 


Statesmen  their  wisdom,  framing  statutes  daily 
For  lawyers'  four-in-hand  to  drive  thro'  gaily ; 
Lovers  their  breasts,  in  deep  drawn  sighs — poor  fellows? ! 
That  wheeze  like  puffs  of  broken- winded  bellows. 

Some  exercise  their  reason  with  their  fist, 
And  argue  stoutly  outwards  from  the  wrist ; 
Some  exercise  their  judgment,  though  not  many — 
These  are  the  most  unpopular  of  any. 


Some  exercise  their  folly,  these  are  '•  Legion," 
The  duped,  cajoled,  the  fleeced  of  ev'ry  region  ; 
Bards  exercise  a  taste  for  odes  and  sonnets. 
And  belles  for  myths,  which  milliners  call  bonnets. 

Some  exercise  their  locomotive  organs, 
And  live  by  tours  less  lively  than  our  Morgans ; 
Some  exercise  the  faculties  called  mental. 
Write  many  books,  but  never  read  a  rental. 

Some  exercise  their  doubt  when  there  is  question 
Of  worth  or  merit,  clad  in  frieze  or  fustian ; 
Some  exercise  their  fancy  spirit-knocking. 
Dreaming  of  angels  when  the  fiends  are  mocking. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  139 


Some  exercise  their  minds  in  jumping  ditches, 
Shine  most  in  scarlet  coats  and  buckskin  breeches, 
Think  most  of  covers,  kennels,  runs  and  courses, 
Talk  best  of  fences,  huntsmen,  hounds,  and  horses. 

Some  exercise  their  energies  in  punning. 

And  labour  hard  for  their  impromptu  funning  ; 

Kead  up  old  jests  and  grind  them  young — those  Millers 

Grind  well  of  course  the  grist  for  story  tellers. 

Some  exercise  their  cleverness  in  jobbing — 
Another  name  with  gentlemen  for  robbing  ; 
Some  do  a  stroke  of  business  on  grand  juries, 
In  joint  stock  bankS;  Whigs,  Rapparees,  and  Tories. 

Some  exercise  their  craft  in  artful  dodges 

On  great  divisions,  and  in  Orange  lodges  ; 

Men  of  two  souls,  two  sides  to  suit — a  White  one  ? 

The  other  black  ;  but  God  knows  which  the  right  on  . 

Some  exercise  their  zeal  as  bible  readers. 
Converting  souls  with  soup,  and  tracts  for  feeders  ; 
Some  exercise  their  charity  accusing 
Their  fellow  Christians,  and  their  faith  abusing 

Some  exercise  then-  horses  running  race*^, 
And  some  their  members  running  after  places  ; 
Some  exercise  the  franchise,  showing  clearly 
They  prize  it  highly,  for  they  price  it  dearly. 

Some  exercise  their  valour  when  they're  drinking, 
And  some  their  bounty  when  their  pulse  is  sinking  ; 
Some  exercise  their  prudence  when  folks  press  them, 
To  feel  their  pockets  and  jDrepare  to  bless  them. 

Thus  ev'ry  one  takes  exercise  that  suits  him. 
Or  thinks  it  serves  his  purj^ose,  or  recruits  him. 
Each  has  his  taste,  his  humour,  whim,  and  fashion. 
His  clique,  his  club,  his  hobby,  and  his  passion. 


140  MEMOIRS 


SWEETS    TO    THE    SWEET.* 

'Tis  sweet  the  evening  bells  to  hear 

Of  village  church — when  not  too  near  ; 

'Tis  sweet  to  see,  without  a  frown, 

A  kind  old  couple  toddling  down 

The  hill  of  life  in  peace  together, 

Kegardless  of  the  shortening  tether ; 

'Tis  sweet  to  sip  a  cup  of  Congo 

When  wine  has  made  the  head  all  wrong  go 

•Tis  sweet,  in  deserts  parched,  to  drink 

Cold  water — when  it  does  not  stink  ; 

'Tis  Bweet  to  hear  one's  first  work  praised, 

To  see  a  list'ning  friend  amazed, 

To  smell  the  dinner  on  the  stairs 

At  half -past  six,  when  one  despairs  ; 

'Tis  sweet  an  ancient  pile  to  view 

With  ivy  wreathed  ;  'tis  pleasant,  too, 

To  see  a  round  of  beef  well  boiled, 

Or  sirloin  roast,  or  steak  well  broiled  ; 

'Tis  sweet  to  dream  of  uncles  old, 

And  dying  aunts  with  lots  of  gold  ; 

'Tis  sweet  to  think  we  grow  more  wise 

When  RatcUffe's  page  we  cease  to  prize, 

And  turn  to  Malthus  or  to  Hervey 

For  tombs  and  cradles  topsy-turvey  ; 

'Tis  sweet  to  flatter  one's  dear  self 

With  sentimental  stuff — when  pelf 

Is  passion,  poetry  romance. 

And  all  our  faith's  in  three  per  cents ; 

'Tis  sweet  to  see  an  infant  smile, 

A  maiden  blush  devoid  of  guile, 

A  youthful  mother  watch  her  child, 

And  view  its  little  features  mild ; 

'Tis  sweet,  says  Tully,  to  reheve 

The  poor,  to  comfort  those  who  grieve. 

To  heal  the  sick,  to  shield  the  stranger, 

And  snatch  unwary  youth  from  danger  ; 

But  sweeter  far  than  this  or  aught 

In  life,  with  pleasing  feelings  fraught, 

Is  that  unutterable  joij 

The  man  approves  without  alloy, 

Who  breaks  the  bond  of  slavery 

And  sets  his  fellow -mortal  free. 

*  Specimen  from  an  Unpublished  Epic  Poem. 


DR.   E.   R,   MADDEN.  lil 


EXPOSTULATION   AND   AGITATION. 

(Written  during  the  Tithe  Agitation).* 
Are  you  wise  or  are  you  mad  ? 

Will  you  never  be  content  ? 
Have  you  ears  for  tidings  glad  ? 

"  Tithes  are  nothing  more  than  rent." 
Swinish  rabble,  ever  brawling, 

Will  you  never  be  at  rest  ? 
"  Kebels  masked,"  for  justice  calling, 

"  All  your  wrongs  have  been  redressed." 
Have  you  not  a  poor-law,  pray  ? 

Thirty  thousand  troops  at  hand, 
And  the  warlike  Lord  De  Grey 

Winning  fame  by  sea  and  land  ? 
Have  you  not  a  bill  for  branding 

Weapons  which  your  fathers  bore 
When  the  Volunteers  were  banding  ? 

What  the  devil  would  you  more  ? 
Equal  laws  and  no  mistake, 

Equal  rights  and  nothing  less ; 
Liberty  for  conscience'  sake, 

And  for  all  wrongs  redress. 
Ample  justice — howsoever 

Whigs  or  Tories  please  to  name  it — 
Up,  Repealers !  now  or  never 

Is  the  time,  hke  men,  to  claim  it. 
Men  of  England,  tell  us  straight — 

Men  of  Scotland,  speak  the  truth — 
Are  we  members  of  one  State, 

Subjects  of  one  Queen  forsooth? 
Would  you  bear  the  ills  which  gall  us 

With  unruffled  breast  or  brow  ? 
If  we're  brothers,  as  you  caU  us, 

Act  by  U8  like  brothers  now. 
Mongrels  of  the  Cromwell  brood, 

Swift  of  foot  and  keen  of  scent, 
When  the  trail  is  one  of  blood, 

How  the  chase  affords  content. 
Civil  war  and  all  its  woe,  * 

Ever  welcome,  ever  grateful, 
Like  the  Franks  of  old,  to  you 

Peace,  of  all  things,  is  most  hateful. 
Fathers  of  the  Irish  Church, 

Shun  such  friends,  and  strive  in  prayer ; 
Faction  only  seeks  your  porch 

When  its  strength  is  spent  elsewhere. 
Landlords  of  the  crimson'd  soil, 

Cries  from  earth  are  reaching  heaven, 
Uttered  by  the  poor  you  spoil, 

Or  from  house  and  home  have  driven. 

^  *  The  Tithe  Agitation  culminated  in  1831,  during  the  Marquis  of  Anglesoa's  administration 
m  Ireland,  in  open  resistance  to  the  hated  impost,  attendant  with  a  lamentable  loss  of  life 
both  to  the  peasantry,  by  whom  it  was  resisted,  and  to  the  police,  by  whom  its  enforcement 
was  attempted,  and  led  to  the  Tithe  Composition  Act.  A  fu;l  account  of  this  epoch  maybe 
found  in  the  two  volumes  of  Mr.  Wm.  Fitzpatrick's  valuable  Life,  Times,  and  Corresvond- 
enee  of  the  Bight  Rev.  Dr.  Doyle.— D\xblm,  1880. 


142  MEMOIRS 


THE    MEN    OF    "NINETY-EIGHT. 


'Tis  the  sunsliine  of  Erin  that  ghmmered  of  old 
On  the  banners  of  green  we  have  loved  to  behold, 

On  the  Shamrock  of  Erin  and  the  Emerald  Isle. 
Oh  !  sweet  is  the  smile  on  the  face  of  the  land, 
Where  its  beauty  has  struggled  for  ages  with  tears, 
Where  the  dark  gloom  of  bondage  recedes  from  the  strand, 

And  the  Shamrock  of  Erin  and  the  Emerald  Isle. 


II. 

Her  children  are  freemen,  who  slumbered  in  chains 
When  our  fathers  were  up  and  defended  our  plains 

From  the  tyrants  who  trampled  the  Emerald  Isle; 
But  where  are  the  men  of  the  year  Ninety-Eight? 
The  brave  and  the  true  men,  and  echo  says  where  ? 
They  speak  not,  they  smile  not,  their  sons  are  elate, 
And  they  have  not  a  word  for  the  famous,  nor  a  tear 

For  the  men  who  defended  the  Emerald  Isle. 


III. 

The  cause  it  was  treason  of  yore  to  maintain 

Has  triumphed  at  last  over  tyranny's  reign, 

And  the  badge  of  the  brave  is  the  shamrock  so  green: 

But  where  are  the  brothers  united  the  while  ? 

I  hear  not  their  strains  in  our  peals  of  applause  ; 

Ah  !  call  back  the  exile  who  loves  the  green  Isle  ; 
Oh  !  think  on  his  comrades  who  died  for  the  cause 
Of  the  Emerald  Isle  and  the  Shamrock  so  green. 


IV. 

Oh !  call  back  the  exile,  bid  wisdom  and  worth 
With  McNevin  revisit  their  place  of  their  birth — 

The  land  of  dear  Erin,  the  Emerald  Isle. 
Restore  to  us  genius  and  virtue  combined, 
The  Cato  of  Erin— her  Emmet — recall  : 
Ah !  warm  is  the  wish,  but  their  memories  shrined, 
In  our  hearts  let  them  live,  and  be  green  there  withal. 

Like  the  Shamrock  beloved  of  the  Emerald  Isle. 


Oh  !  think  on  the  dead,  and  forget  not  the  brave  ; 
Remember  the  chivalry  that  sleeps  in  the  grave — 

Of  Edward,  the  pride  of  the  Emerald  Isle. 
We  seek  no  revenge,  and  we  need  none  'tis  true, 

For  none  did  avenge  us  as  did  Castlereagh ; 
We  ask  for  the  dead,  but  the  tribute  that's  due 
To  our  countrymen's  worth,  and  we  claim  it  this  day. 
For  the  memories  dear  to  the  Emerald  Isle. 
New  York,  1840. 


DB.    R.    E.    MADDEN. 


AN    EVICTION    LAY.* 


I. 


Down  with  the  cabins  !     Away  with  the  poor  ! 

Now  on  with  the  war  of  the  clearance  crusade ; 
Shatter  each  window  and  batter  each  door ; 

Hurrah  for  the  work  of  the  "  Crowbar  Brigade  ! 


Up  with  the  sledges,  the  structure  is  frail ; 

That  crash  tells  how  bravely  the  walls  are  assailed. 
In  at  the  beach  !  show  the  wretches  who  quail 

The  landlord  has  triumphed,  his  law  has  prevailed ! 


Scatter  the  embers  !  the  rafters  must  blaze. 
The  wreck  of  the  roof  must  illumine  the  scene ; 

Drive  out  the  wretches,  in  terror  who  gaze 
On  ruins  that  lately  their  homesteads  have  been. 


IV. 

Out  with  the  squalor ! — the  brats  at  the  breast, 
The  crones  in  the  corner  away  must  be  borne  ; 

Heed  not  the  cry  of  the  heart  that's  opprest, 
The  curse  of  the  poor  you  can  smile  at  in  scorn ! 


Wailings  of  women,  the  pitiful  look 

Of  children  appealing  for  mercy  despise  ! 

Eavings  of  frenzy  must  serve  for  a  joke, 
And  anguish  uncouth  seem  absurd  in  your  eyes. 


Break  up  the  grounds  that  were  heretofore  tilled. 
Pasture  the  beast  where  the  peasant  might  live ! 

Poorhouses  surely  were  made  to  be  filled, 
And  the  land  is  alone  for  the  cattle  to  thrive. 


VII. 

Nothing  is  left^of  the  homes  of  the  poor 
But  desolate  gables  that  point  to  the  skies, 

Destined  like  obelisks  long  to  endure 
Memorials  of  exploits  to  challenge  surprise. 


VIII. 

Thus  goes  on  the  war  of  the  clearance  crusade, 
The  rights  of  the  landlords  must  carry  the  day 

Their  duties  are  done  by  the  crowbar  brigade. 
Their  deeds  are  recorded — and  God  will  repay. 

*  Written  in  the  Famine  Year,  1849. 


l44  MEMOIRS 


THE    EMIGRANTS.* 

Air — "  By  that  Lake  whose  gloomy  shore." 

God  be  with  you  mother  dear, 

Wiristhroo  !  oh  wiristhroo  ! 
Must  I  go  and  leave  you  here, 

Old  and  poor,  and  friendless  too. 

Kathleen,  in  the  name  of  God, 

Fly  the  famine  land ;  this  day 
Thousands  lie  beneath  the  sod, 

In  theu'  youth,  love ! — swept  away. 

'Tis  a  wretched  land  indeed, 

But  it  is  our  country  sure  ; 
And  'tis  sad  to  seek  one's  bread 

Far  from  kith  and  kin,  asthore. 

Oh,  my  child,  a  land,  1  fear, 
Where  the  wrath  of  God  and  man 

Falls,  as  it  hath  fallen  here, 
Ev'ry  one  must  flee  who  can. 

Well  I  know  its  fated  doom ; 

But  my  father's  grave  is  here, 
And  my  mother's  hearth  and  home, 

Tho'  now  desolate  and  drear. 

Age  and  sorrow  home  have  none. 
But  the  young  with  hearts  that  glow, 

Thro'  the  Blessed  Mary's  Son, 
One  will  find  where'er  they  go. 

To  your  loving  breast  once  more, 

Where  in  infancy  I  lay, 
Mother  dear,  to  thy  heart's  core 

Press  me  closer  still  I  pray. 

# 

Kathleen,  with  this  last  embrace, 

Take  my  blessing  darling  now, 
God  of  glory  give  you  grace  !  '   ' 

All  good  angels  go  with  you  ! 

Written  on  return  from  Australia^  1850. 

*  An  almoBt  literal  version  of  one  of  these  affecting  parting  scenes  of  our  peasantry— the 
separation  of  young  and  old,  parents  and  children,  the  loving  and  the  loved,  the  hopeful  and 
the  hopeless,  the  hale  and  the  decrepit ;  scenes  now  of  such  frequent  occurrence  at  many  of 
the  stations  of  cm-  principal  railway  lines,  and  which  I  have  observed  with  pain,  on  more  than 
one  occasion,  productive  of  amuseaaent  for  our  touristB. 


DE.    K.    E.    MADDEN.  l45 


1849. 


THE   CELTIC   BACE. 


The  Celtic  race  must  yield  its  place 
Exile  or  death  must  end  it  here  ; 

By  flight  or  famine  every  trace 
Of  the  old  stock  must  disappear. 


*'  The  Irish  foe  " — the  Celt  must  go, 
He  shall  not  live  in  his  own  land  ; 

The  Times  has  said  "it  must  be  so," 
Man's  rights  and  Nature's  laws  are  banu'd. 


III. 

The  landlord's  code — that  writ  in  blood- 
Works  well ;  the  poor,  indeed,  decrease. 

The  Whigs  have  made  a  solitude, 
And  call  the  desolation— peace. 


IV. 

Our  Saxon  lords  would  turn  their  swords 
To  plough  shares  in  this  crimson'd  soil, 

And  clear  it  of  its  Celtic  hordes 
To  plant  anew  the  ravaged  Isle. 


V. 

This  land  of  graves,  of  famished  slaves, 
To  "  Law  and  Order  "yields  once  more 

"  The  Irish  foe  '  is  crushed,  he  craves 
Admission  at  the  poorhouse  door. 


ERm    TO    HER    SISTEE.  ,     .•  | 

The  dragon-crested  pohcy  that  made  ' 

A  Nation's  creed  and  origin  a  crime ; 

The  sceptre  sword— the  Church  and  State  stockade  ;  I 

The  Pale— its  wars— the  liazet  s  of  our  clime  ; 
The  truce  that  gave  an  interval  to  prime 

And  load  the  laws,  and  confiscate  the  Isle  :  ' 

These  were  your  gifts  of  government;— and  time  j 

^Matured  the  seeds  you  scattered  in  our  soil, —  * 

Seeds,  hkc  the  serpent's  teeth,  which  yielded  strife  and  spoil.  i 

*  Lines  written  for  title  page  of  a  work  on  Penal  Laws,  Lisbon,  1844. 

a 


146  MKMOIES 


THE   REBEL'S  EABEWELL.* 

i 

I.  i 

The  heart  that's  grieving, 
Still  fondly  cleaving 
To  hopes  deceiving 

That  bloom  no  more, 
Eecalls  each  pleasure, 
Keclaims  life's  treasure, 
Love's  own  large  measure 

Of  joys  of  yore. 

1 

If  stars  which  sever  , 

Unite  us  never,  1 

Oh  !  then  for  ever  | 

One  last  farewell !  ; 

When  tears  are  starting,  i 

One  cup  at  parting  ^ 

Should  soothe  its  smarting—  . 

Its  gloom  dispel.  ■ 

J 

nr. 

New  cares  come  o'er  us,  i 

New  scenes  before  us,  ! 

Frail  hopes  that  bore  us  i 

We  now  must  view—  | 

In  fragments  broken,  , 

The  wreck's  sad  token  t  I 

Of  lovo^  hat's  spoken  1 

Its  last  adieu.  I 

IV. 

No  more  fond  dreaming]  j 

Of  bright  eyes  beaming, 

AVith  rapture  streaming,  j 

And  love's  own  light ;  \ 

To  friends  united, 
By  vows  fast  phghtcd, 
The  cause  now  blighted — 

Yaiu  hopes,  good  night !  , 

1 

''"  Among  tlie  pftt)Ci'B  in  my  pnprcssion  of  the  iinfortunate  younfr  Felix  Bourkc  (executed  ill  J 
180o),  thoro  iH  a  letter  of  his  wvittcu  cluriny  his  conlineDient  in  1798,  adclresaed  to  a  young  I 
lady  to  whom  he  was  attached,  intbi  ming  her  that  the  Goveniment  had  consented  to  his  release  1 
and  that  of  several  ot  his  ccmpanions,  on  condition  of  their  expatriating  themselves.  He  \ 
communicates  the  news  of  his  expected  exile  in  a  strain  of  grief  and  gladness,  of  love  and 
patriotism,  of  boyish  levitv  and  deep  pathos.  His  letter  suggested  the  fcregoing  lines, 
written  lu  the  measure  of  Curtau's  Song  of  the  Deeerter. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  147 


Yet  grief  is  fitting. 
The  exile's  flitting, 
His  country  quitting  ~ 

Friends,  house,  and  home. 
The  cause  that  vaunted 
Its  chiefs  undaunted — 
The  seeds  they  planted, 

They  yet  shall  bloom. 

vr. 

If  youth  for  gladness, 

If  age  for  sadness 

Be  made,  what  madness 

To  be  cast  down  ; 
There's  work  remaining, 
An  end  for  gaining, 
And  for  attaining, 

Still  left  undone. 


THE    BELLE     OF    TEl3     OCEAN. 

^he  traveller  may  boast  of  the  clime  of  the  East, 

He  may  rave  about  Naples  and  Home, 
He  may  range  the  wide  world  all  his  fancies  to  feast, 

And  forget  all  the  pleasures  of  home. 
Tho'  sweet  are  the  shores  and  ambrosial  the  gale 

Of  the  soil  and  its  bright  summer  sea, 
The  glare  of  its  beauty  shall  never  prevail 

O'er  thine,  dearest  Erin,  with  me. 

The  poet  may  dream  of  Arcadian  delights, 

And  illumine  his  page  with  the  glow 
Of  a  sunrise  in  Greece,  wlien  Apollo  ahghla 

On  Olympus  in  vesture  of  snow. 
I  care  not  for  Phoebus,  I  court  not  a  beam 

Of  his  beauty,  however  divine  ; 
Of  sunshine  and  splendour  abroad  be  his  dream, 

But  thou,  dearest  Erin,  be  mine  I 

Let  Byron  awaken  the  heart- stirring  lyre, 

And  the  beauty  impassioned  proclaim 
Of  belles  Oriental,  whose  features  inspii'e, 

Ev'ry  breast  at  a  glance  with  a  flame. 
The  beam  unabashed  of  the  dark-rolling  eye 

la  a  thing  for  which  poets  may  pine, 
And  beauty,  far  distant,  extol  to  the  sky, 

But  thine,  dearest  Erin,  be  mine. 


St.  Leonard\?i  1830. 


U  * 

I 


148  MEHOiRS 


THE   DAY    THAT    IS    TO    COME.* 


Once  more  the  torch  of  Freedom  burns,  | 

The  glorious  flnme  revives, 
The  light  of  life  to  earth  returns, 

And  liberty  stilt  lives  !  | 

The  sundered  chain  is  linked  in  vain  | 

Again  to  bind  the  brave,  ; 

It  cannot  bind  a  Nation's  mind  \ 

New  risen  from  the  grave.  I 


The  time  of  strife  and  raid  is  gone. 

Oppression's  reign  is  o'er, 
And  smiles  for  ages  past  unknown 

Poor  Erin  wears  once  more. 
Her  day  is  come,  and  night's  long  gloom, 

With  all  its  grief  is  past, 
The  harp  that  slept  so  long  is  swept 

By  freedom's  sons  at  last. 


Ko  more  shall  faclion  rear  its  crest, 

Eevile  us  and  upbraid. 
And  while  it  tramples  the  opprest, 

Still  vaunt  of  brand  and  blade. 
A  nobler  boast  shall  be  our  toast. 

Oblivion  for  the  past. 
United  hands,  and  hearts,  and  friends. 

In  triumph  joined  at  last. 


If  yet  on  earth  no  other  shrine 

Of  liberty  were  known. 
My  ov/n  beloved  land,  but  thine, 

I  still  would  bow  me  down. 
"Where  moral  might  sustain  the  Right, 

A  Nation's  mind  commands, 
When  millions  feel  their  country's  weal 

Is  in  their  peaceful  hands. 


EPITOME    OF    IRISH    HISTORY.f 

God  made  the  land,  and  all  His  works  are  good  ; 
Man  made  the  laws,  and  all  they  breath'd  was  blood. 
Unhallowed  annals  of  six  hundred  years — 
A  code  of  blood— a  history  of  tears. 

*  A  Day-dream,  1.^43. 

t  tines  written  for  title  page  of  an  esBay  on  tlie  History  0/  Ireland,  lc4o. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  149 


THE    VOLUNTAHY    PRINCIPLE. 

God  speed  the  cause,  the  righteous  cause, 

Of  Liberty  and  Peace, 
And  bless  the  laud  with  equal  laws, 

And  bid  injustice  cease. 

Protect  religion's  freedom,  Lord, 

From  fatal  gifts  and  guile, 
And  weapon,  deadly  as  the  sword-^ 

The  Courtier's  crafty  wile. 


From  all  connection  with  the  State 

Its  independence  guard, 
Six  hundred  years'  resisted  hate 

And  brave  defence  reward. 


The  spotless  hind  keep  undefiled 

From  every  sordid  strain, 
And  priests  and  prelates  uubeguilel 

By  goYoruraental  gain. 

Thy  sacred  Truth  their  treasure  be, 

Thy  wisdom  their  defence, 
And  its  great  riches  set  them  free 

From  thoughts  of  Pounds  and  pence. 

Thy  altars  as  of  old  sustained. 

Thy  pastors  by  the  flock  ; 
And  by  the  fold  "the  Church  maintnined 

That's  built  upon  the  Kock. 


Thy  sacred  temple  evermore. 
Though  lowly  it  may  be, 

Preserve  from  every  splendid  lure 
And  leave  it  poor — but  free. 


Its  altar  never  be  profaned 
By  pensioned  priests,  I  pray, 

Nor  served  by  ministers  maintained 
in  any  Statesman's  pay. 


18-il. 


150  MEMOIRS 


ON  BEVISITING  KILBONAN  AFTER  A  LAPSE  OF  MANY  lEARS. 

Time,  it  would  seem,  deals  leniently  with  things 

Sacred  to  genius  and  religion's  name, 
And  leaves  the  gorgeous  palaces  of  kings 

No  such  enduring  monument  of  fame  : 
But  thy  old  walls,  Kilronan,  are  the  same 

Unchanging  ruins  I  beheld  them  last, 
When  five-and -twenty  years  ago  I  came 

And  pondered  o'er  these  records  of  the  past, 
Written  in  stone  that  age  had  oYercast. 

The  same  old  ivy  clings  to  thy  grey  stones, 

And  this  unfading  drapery  of  yore 
The  gothic  arch  and  sculptur'd  casement  crowns. 

And  shrouds  these  sacred  walls  as  heretofore  ; 
These  hallowed  graves  the  Cyprus  still  waves  o'er. 

Before  thee  now  in  peaceful  slumber  lies 
The  tranquil  lake,  and  on  tho  noiseless  shore 

The  pilgrim  stands,  and  vainly  turns  his  eyes 
Where  our  last  minstrel's  monument  should  rise.* 
• 

But  thine,  sweet  bard,  is  in  a  people's  core, 

And  there  enshrined  in  memory  shall  be 
\Yhen  old  Kilronan's  ruins  are  no  more. 

And  not  one  stone  is  left  to  speak  of  thee. 
Yet  are  these  ruins,  even  in  decay, 

Worthy  to  be  the  shrine  of  such  remains. 
Though  even  here  the  spoiler  dared  to  lay 

His  ruthless  hand  on  all  that  earth  retains 
■  Of  one  who  filled  our  country  with  his  strains. 

Here  by  his  grave  the  honoured  patrons  rest— 

The  old  kind  friends,  whose  well-known  hearths  and  homes 
Full  many  a  time  and  oft  his  footsteps  prest. 

And  now,  when  all  is  silent  as  these  tombs, 
Tiiey  too,  and  all  that  once  was  theirs,  are  gone ; 

Or  if  a  remnant  of  the  land  that  looms 
Around  me  still  is  left  from  sire  to  son. 

The  wreck  of  ancient  property  becomes 
A  prey  which  law  to  desolation  dooms. 

Here  is  the  grave  of  ancestors  of  mine. 

The  long  last  home  of  my  maternal  race  ; 
Those  in  whose  halls  the  minstrel  oft  resigned 

His  soul  to  song,  and  all  his  cares  would  chase. 
Oh  !  what  a  change  has  fallen  on  this  place — 

These  scattered  stones  denoting  its  extent, 
Are  all  that's  left  of  Lyonstown  to  trace 

The  spot  v/here  one,  whose  memory  is  blent 
With  every  thought  of  mine,  her  youth  had  spent. 

*  Carolan's  remains  were  buried  within  the  ruined  walls  of  Kilronan  Church.  I  remember 
about  thirty  years  ago  seeing  the  head,  which  was  pointed  out  by  tradition  as  that  of  Cardan, 
carefully  preserved  in  a  niche  in  omi  of  the  oW  waHs  with  ix  piece  of  ribboa  ftfflxod  to  i(.  It 
exists  tUere  ao  lowger.— E.  E.  M. 


DE.    E.    E.   MADDEN. 


Oh !  while  I  linger  midst  those  sites  it  seems 

The  current  swells  that  circles  in  my  veins. 
These  ruins  speak  of  old  ancestral  themes, 

Dreams  of  the  past  ill-suited  to  the  scenes 
Must  soon  be  mine,  where  strife  for  ever  reigns 

Where  man  in  ruins,  trampled  and  opprest. 
Holds  forth  his  hands  and  glances  at  his  chains, 

And  that  appeal,  I  feel  hath  reached  my  breast, 
And  every  feeling  of  my  heart  possessed. 

Before  departure  for  Africa  in  1841. 


BESUEGET.*  | 

Oh  !  Erin  my  country,  the  gloom  j 

On  thy  brow  tells  of  anguish  and  woo  ;  ] 

But  the  darkness  that's  there,  not  like  that  of  the  tomb,  | 
Lies  on  features  yet  dsstined  to  glow. 

All  sorely  aggrieved  as  thou  art,  j 

Robbed  of  Freedom,  of  Land,  and  of  Lore,  I 

I  yet  cling  to  the  hope,  that  the  pulse  of  thy  heart,  | 

And  thy  courage  shall  beat  high  once  more.  , 

I  cannot  beheve  'tis  thy  fate  \ 

To  go  down  in  the  wreck  with  the  foe,  j 

With  the  might  and  dominion  so  boundless  of  late,  , 

And  the  pride  that  shall  yet  be  laid  low.  J 

To  the  car  of  the  despot  though  chained,  ] 

While  his  strength  and  resources  endure,  ^ 

Not  bound  to  his  corpse,  as  the  tyrant  ordained,  ■! 
Shall  thou  be,  like  the  victim  of  yore. 

Oh !  Erin  my  country  so  wrong'd,  j 

All  redress  must  we  hope  from  the  Lord, 

For  thy  terrible  annals  of  sull'rings  prolonged  j 

Have  not  shaken  my  faith  in  His  Word.  1 


•  In  the  Creed  and  the  Cause,  alike  blest, 

Of  the  Patriot  Christian  despair 
Finds  no  place,  and  religion  alone  can  invest 
Love  of  country  with  courage  so  rare. 

*  Lines  wittcn  to  encourage  Irishmen  to  hope,  even  against  hope,  for  their  eonntry,  after 
roading  the  mouraful  poem  of  Tiioaias  rurl'jii^',  fiupposua  to  UavG  h'jeu  wntteu  the  iu<,ht 
after  the  Uuiou. 


159  MEMOIES 


1880. 


FAREWELL   LINES    TO    AN    OLD    FRIEND.  J 

^ 

Farewell,  sweet  solace  of  the  careworn  breast,  J 

The  wearied  mind  and  energies  op'rest,  ; 

The  student's  vigils,  and  his  lonesome  life, 

The  traveller's  toil,  and  each  profession's  strife  ! 

Farewell,  lov'd  muse  of  poetry  long  woo'd — 

Fair  lady  of  the  stripling's  heart  imbued  j 

With  all  illusions — and  the  brightest,  yet. 

Though  fast  to  fade,  still  latest  to  forget. 

Of  me  no  gift  can  be  reclaimed  of  thine,  i 

At  least  my  homage  was  not  at  thy  shrine  , 

For  inspiration,  but  for  instinct  meet,  , 

To  prize  in  others  gifts  like  thine,  replete  ^ 

With  glorious  attributes, — to  find  the  same  j 

Old  traits  of  time's  undeadliness  and  fame  -, 

In  Dante's  visions,  and  in  Shakespeare's  lore,  I 

And  Chaucer's  quaint  and  graphic  strains  of  yore.'  ; 

"With  pride  to  trace  them  in  the  works  of  friends,  I 

Whose  fame  with  ties  of  old  acquaintance  blends 

With  Campbell's  name,  Beranger's,  Moore's,  and  though  I 

The  last,  not  least  revered,  with  Beattie's  too.  j 

Farewell,  lov'd  muse  !  'tis  time  we  parted  now, 

When  clouds  and  gloom  are  gathering  on  my  brow  ^i 

And  sickness  dulls  my  spirit,  and  a  change  j 

Conies  o'er  my  dream  of  life  that's  passing  strange !  \ 


LINES  ADDRESSED  TO  A  ZEALOT. 

•  Meekness  and  mild  benignity,  good  Sir, 
Become  a  churchman  better  than  contention: 
Win  erring stuls  with  charity.    'Tis  not 
With  bitter  words  and  controversial  wars — 
With  haughty  looks  and  spiritual  pride 
In  sanctimonious  guise — with  taunts  and  tones 
That  give  offence — the  work  of  Christ  is  done." 

From  an  old  Sjmmsh  Drama  of  Don  Eicardo  Roberto. 

T. 

Oh  !  would  to  God  self-righteous  zealots  tried 
To  show  how  nearly  sects  might  coincide, 
And  not  how  widely  diff'ring,  they  agreed 
To  differ  only — heart  and  soul,  and  creed ! 

II. 

Oh  !  would  to  God  that  all  sectarian  lore 
Taught  Christian  men  to  love  each  other  more, 
And  hate  each  other  less  for  the  defects 
Of  mere  opinion,  judged  by  wrangling  sects. 

HI. 

Oh !  would  to  God  intolerance  was  deemed 
More  than  a  crime,  a  blunder— and  it  seemed 
Experience  brought  mankind  at  last  to  feel 
Earth's  greatest  curse  was  fierce,  untempered  zeal. 


DR.     R.     R.     MADDEN.  153 


CHRISTMAS   DAY. 


To  Bethlehem  !  your  transports  bring 

This  blessed  Christmas  morn  ! 
To  harp  and  timbrel  sacred  sing 
This  day  the  Christ  was  born  ! 
Emanuel  was  born ! 
This  blessed  day 
Of  Jubilee, 
The  Son  of  God  was  born  ! 

II. 

Angelic  anthems  fill  the  skies, 

And  joys  of  earth  in  turn, 
In  canticles  of  praise  arise 
To  greet  the  Christmas  morn, 
The  day  that  Christ  was  born  ! 
0,  joyous  strain 
Break  forth  again  ! — 
This  day  the  Christ  was  born  ! 


Ye  everlasting  gates  lift  up. 

To  ('hrist  we  come  this  morn 
To  cat  the  bread  and  drink  the  cup 
Of  life  itself  new  born. 

0,  woe  to  them  who  scorn 
The  Liimb  of  God, 
Who  shed  his  blood 
This  blessed  Christmas  morn  ! 

IV. 

The  Father  gave  his  only  Son 

To  save  a  world  forlorn  : 
Hi-i  holy  will  on  earth  was  done 
The  day  the  Christ  was  born  ! 

6,  greet  that  blessed  morn 
The  Lamb  of  God, 
Who  shed  his  blood 
For  sinful  man,  was  born  ! 


0,  let  the  Church  of  God  rejoice  ! 

Proclaim  the  cross  this  morn, 
Hosannas  loud  in  ev'ry  voice, 
The  holy  one  is  born  ! 

To  us  a  child  is  born  ! 
0,|breathe  again' 
That  blessed  strain, 
This  day  the  Christ  was  bora  ! 


154  MpMOlBS 


POEMS    WRITTEN    AT    DIFFERENT    PERIODS    OF    LIFE-- 
SOME    FUBTHER    SELECTIONS. 

DANTE'S     CREED. 

^*  Nel  mezzo  del  camraino  cli  nostra  vita 
Mi  retrovai  pcir  una  silva  osciira, 
Che  la  dirretta  via  era  unarrita  : 
E'  quanto  a  dir,  qual  era  e  causa  dura 
Questa  sielva  solvaggio,  ed  aspcr  e  porte 
Ube  nel  ijeasior  fiauuova  la  paura." 

Dante's  Inferno— Canto  I, 

As  we  advance  midway  in  our  career, 

Each  onward  step  makes  our  experience  wear 

A  graver  aspect,  and  more  enlarged, 

With  deeper  trials  is  that  experience  charged — 

Dante  has  drawn  a  picture  of  the  strife 

And  length'niug  shadows  of  the  passing  life  ; 

But  he,  of  mortal  minstrels  first  and  best, 

Was  not  content  to  paint  them,  he  addrcst 

His  mighty  genius  to  the  cause  of  those 

Gigantic  ills  which  war  with  our  repose. 

Strong  in  the  faith  of  his  Italian  sires — 
In  silent  meditation — his  desires 
Were  prayers  for  knowledge,  in  the  midst  of  all 
Surrounding  darkness,  discord,  spirit-thrall ; 
Fain  would  he  know  why  so  much  evil  reigned 
Throughout  the  land  and  triumphed  unrestrained. 
sH  t  '!;  -Jt  * 

But  Dante  found  assurance  for  his  Faith 
"Where  thousands  falter,  faint,  or  lose  its  path  : 
One  steadfast  thought  prevailed  in  his  mind, 
Pervading  ev'ry  page  he  wrote  we  find. 

5>C  ^:  ^  ;j; 

That  ancient  Church  was  surely  founded  well 
On  Christ's  own  promise  that  "  the  gates  of  hell 
Shall  not  prevail  against  it.''     Wind  and  rain 
May  beat  upon  that  House  of  God  in  vain  ; 
Though  human  passions,  furnished  with  the  power 
To  mar  its  beauty,  in  an  evil  hour 
The  outward  structure  may  profane  ;  yet  more 
Than  human  strength  preserved  its  shrines  of  yore, 
And  still  protects  them  from  the  worst  of  all 
The  ills  that  can  Religion's  rule  befall ; 
But  God  sets  bounds  to  malice,  and  confines 
Within  those  limits  its  perverse  designs. 
The  Church  of  Christ  that's  militant  on  earth, 
Battling  with  all  abuses  from  its  birth — 
Scandals,  reproach,  dissembled  zeal  and  doubt, 
Weakness  within  and  wickedness  without ; 
Founded  on  Peter,  there  it  stands  secure, — 
"  'J'he  Rock  of  Ages  '' — destined  to  endure. 
Shall  reign  triumphant  with  its  Spouse  Divine, 
And  this  was  Dante's  Creed— and  it  is  mine. 


PB,    E,    B.    MADDJIN,  J55 


LINES    ON   A    DEATH.BED    SCENE.* 

Somni  leves,  quanquam  ccrtisBima  mortis  imayo, 

CoDBortem  oupio  te  tainen  tori, 
A'lraa  qujes,  optata  veni,  nam  sic  sine  vita 
Vivere  quora  suave  est,  sic  sine  morte  mori. 

T.  Warton. 

Come  not  here  in  anguish  wailing, 

Spirit-stricken,  broken-hearted, 
Steeped  in  sadness  unavaihng, 

For  ii  sainted  soul  departed ! 

Not  like  those  wlio  sorrow  grieving, 
Without  hope,  the  death-bed  tending ; 

But  as  mourners  feel,  believing 
Angels  o'er  that  couch  are  bending  ! 

Calm  in  death  our  friend  is  lying, 

Placid,  still,  as  infant  sleeping  ; 
Holy  living,  holy  dying, 

All  throughout  in  perfect  keeping. 

Solemn  stillness,  rest  unbroken 

Ev'ry  feature  overcasting, 
Type  of  Christian  death  and  token 

Uf  the  peace  that's  everlasting 

Hero  tlie  just  man  lies,  retaining 

\Yell-known  traits  of  meditation, 
Wrapt  in  prayer,  the  soul  remaining 

All  absorbed  in  contemplation. 

At  the  Virgin's  shrine  while  kneeling. 

Thus  he  looked,  in  trance  assuming 
Traits  like  those  of  death  revealing 

Spirit-life,  that  face  illuming. 

Thus  in  life  he  looked — emotion, 

Passion,  self,  subdued  completely  ; 
Soul-enraptured,  mute  devotion, 

With  its  God  communing  sweetly. 

Wake  our  Christian  brother  duly, 

Sacred  rite  and  ministration, 
Blending  prayer  and  gladness  holy 

Mingling  tears  with  consolation. 

Friends  of  worth  and  goodness  gather 
Round  his  bier  !  Affliction's  drooping 

Children,  mourning  friend  and  father, 
Hither  come,  in  silence  grouping ! 

Friends,  the  white-plumed  hearse  who  follow, 

Come  not  here  lamenting  errors  ; 
Call  to  mind  the  deeds  that  hallow 

Death,  and  triumph  o'er  its  terrors  ! 

*  On  the  death  of  the  author's  couBin,  James  Murphy  Eaq.,  at  Mount  Merrion,  on  the 
rth  January  lb60. 


150  MEMOIBS  i 


GRACE. 


The  Grace  of  God  is  all  my  prayer  i 
To  whom  that  grace  is  given 

Whate'er  he  wants  on  earth  is  there, 
And  all  he  needs  for  heaven. 

All  virtues  doth  that  gift  comprise, 

And  everyone  enforce ; 
Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity  arise 

From  that  one  blessed  source. 


Could  "  Faith  alone  "  all  wants  supply, 

Would  men  have  falsified 
The  Word  of  God,  and  forged  a  lie 

To  suit  their  wretched  pride  ? 


It  is  not  Hope  devoid  of  fear, 

Or  fear  alone  avails, 
Or  zealot's  boast,  or  changling's  tear, 

That  serves  when  sin  assails. 


It  is  not  Charity,  apart 

From  Faith  and  Hope,  which  brings 
That  love  divine  that  must  revert 

To  him  who  gave  it  wings. 


A  simple  mind,  a  contrite  heart. 

An  ardent  soul  be  mine ! 
Thy  Grace,  0  Lord !  in  these  impart, 

And  all  I  need  of  Thine  ! 


Havana— Cuba,  1838. 


AN    OLD    MAN'S    PRAYER. 

To  Thee,  all-wise  and  sovereign  Lord  on  Ligli, 
In  my  great  need  and  wretchedness  I  cry 
For  grace  that  Thy  most  holy  will  alone 
In  ev'ry  thought  and  act  of  mine  be  done  ! 
To  feel  the  highest  wisdom,  here  below, 
To  Thy  good  will  and  pleasure  is  to  bow ; 
To  bear  with  trouble,  suff" ring,  sickness,  pain, 
As  sent  in  mercy,  haply  to  restrain. 
Reprove,  or  chasten  ;  missives  not  of  wrath. 
But  loye  that  all  a  father's  fondness  hath. 


DK.     E.     E.     MADDEN.  157 


Come  to  me,  my  good  God !  in  mercy's  guise, 
To  soothe  and  comfort ;  gladden  these  dim  eyes 
With  the  bright  vision  of  Thy  glory,  Lord, 
Revealed  in  (Jhrist,  in  Him  to  be  adored. 
To  suffer  for  tlic  sake  of  Christ  I'll  strive, 
And  thus  from  sickness  labour  to  derive 
Blessings  that  health  itself  might  not  procure, 
Nor  wealth  command,  nor  power  on  earth  insure. 
Give  me,  my  God,  all  suff'rings  here  of  mine 
To  turn  to  good  account,  by  grace  divine. 
Vernon  Terrace,  Booterstouii. 


LIKES   WPtlTTEN    IN    JEHUSALExM. 

(part     II.)* 

Far  from  my  bosom  be  the  pride  refined 
Of  that  affected  purity  of  mind 
Which  fain  would  spurn  devotion  from  the  tomb 
Of  Him  who  died  to  mitigate  our  doom ! 
Far  from  me  may  that  apathy  still  be, 
Assumed  or  not,  which  scorns  to  bend  the  knee 
Where  the  Redeemer  huug  upon  the  Cross 
For  man's  atonement,  and  for  Eden's  loss ! 

Still,  while  I  take  my  solitary  round. 
Survey  the  wonders  of  this  sacred  ground. 
Shrink  at  the  gloom  which  overhangs  thewall» 
And  mark  the  silence  that  prevails  o'er  all  ; 
Tread  on  the  heaps  long  tioddeu  down  of  old 
By  raging  bigot,  or  invaders  bold, 
Pause  to  refer  each  ruin  to  the  work 
Of  time  or  war,  of  Titus  or  the  Turk  ; — 
Still,  thoughtless  as  I  am,  emotions  rise 
Sceptic  or  stoic  would  in  vain  disguise. 


And  though  the  wreck  of  matter  all  around 
Failed  to  excite  a  sense  of  awe  profound. 
The  scenes  connected  with  salvation  rise 
And  soothe  the  prospect  with  celestial  dj'es. 
Here  is  that  Mount  of  Olives,  ever  fair, 
That  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  still  here  ; 
Here  is  that  Bethany  where  INIary  grieved, 
And  Jesus  wept,  and  Lazarus  revived  ; 
Here  is  that  Bethlehem  where  godlike  love 
First  deigned  to  dawn  a  beacon  from  above ; 
And  here  that  Calvary,  where  mercy  gave 
The  blood  of  life  to  triumph  o'er  the  grave. 

Jerusalem,  182G. 

*f  ViAe  p.  45, 


158  MEMOIRS 


WEAKNESS. 

I  know  I  am  all  weakness,  Lord  ! 

All  wretchedness  and  need ; 
And  not  one  act,  or  thought,  or  word 

Of  mine  deserves  Thy  heed. 

I  know,  my  God,  that  sin  is  death, 

And  yet  I  live  in  sin ; 
Contemn  the  world,  yet  seek  its  breath, 

And  strive  its  praise  to  win. 

I  know  my  passions  war  with  peace, 

And  still  in  bonds  remain  ; 
Condemn  the  slave,  but  do  not  cease 

To  wear  the  odious  chain. 

1  know,  my  God,  Thy  sacred  law, 

And  feel  it  should  prevail, 
But  fear  it  not,  and  stand  in  awe 

Of  man's  opinion  frail. 

I  know,  except  in  Christ  alone, 

There  is  not  under  heaven 
A  name  whereby  salvation's  boon 

To  fallen  man  is  given ! 

And  yet  I  murmur  at  the  cross. 
And  shrink  at  slander's  aim. 

And,  wretched  pride,  would  risk  the  loss 
Of  Christ  for  sake  of  fame  ! 

But  still  unworthy  as  I  am, 

And  mindless  of  Thy  care, 
My  faith  unshaken  in  the  Lamb 

Preserves  me  from  despair  ! 

Prone  as  I  am  to  earth,  my  God, 

My  spirit  soars  above  ; 
Thy  justice  hitherto  its  rod, 

Its  staff  is  now  Thy  love  ! 


Thy  grace  alone  doth  kindle  now 
The  flame  whose  fervour  giveth 

The  joy  that's  mine,  because  I  know 
That  my  Redeemer  liveth. 

Havana,  1838. 


1857, 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  159 


LINES 

(\Vntten  on  the  Eve  of  New- Year's  Day). 

I. 

Another  year  is  gone  :  its  heir  is  come, 
Onward,  still  onward,  hastening  to  the  tomb, 
The  same  dull,  measured  tread  of  Time  beat  o'er 
Still  meets  the  ear  that  mark'd  its  course  of  yore. 
But  nearer  now  the  solemn  footsteps  fall 
Around  our  hearths,  our  homes,  our  hopes  withal, 
And  there,  death  even,  it  will  come  to  pass, 
Will  yet  be  found  too  well  known,  alas ! 


Onward,  still  onward,  marching  to  the  tomb, 
Man,  at  each  step  that  nears  his  long  last  home, 
Drags  on  a  lengthen'd  chain  of  hopes  deceived, 
And  there  at  last  arrives  of  all  bereaved. 
Upward,  now  upward,  where  the  spirit  soars 
And  gains  those  heights  philosophy  explores, 
Each  downward  glance  reveals  a  world  of  snares. 
Vain  projects,  small  ambitious,  sordid  cares. 


But  higher,  still  more  heavenward,  the  soul 
IMust  rise  from  earth  to  reach  its  destined  goal, 
Where  Time  is  merged  in  God's  Eternity, 
And  "  Death  is  swallowed  up  in  Victory."     ' 
There,  and  there  only,  shall  we  cease  to  mourn 
The  loved  ones  lost  on  earth,  and  there  return 
That  living  love  ve  felt  could  never  be 
Enjoyed  by  us,  on  earth,  sufficiently. 


IN    TIME    OF    TROUBLE. 

IIow  oft,  0  Hod,  in  danger's  day 
I've  called  upon  Thy  Name, 

And  bowed  the  long-unbended  kneo^ 
Thy  mercy  still  to  claim ! 

How  oft,  0  God,  when  worldly  care 
Or  sickness  pressed  me  down. 

My  every  hope  was  winged  on  prajcr 
To  Thy  eternal  throne  ! 


160  Memoirs 


But  wlien  the  time  of  trouble  ceased, 
And  joy  and  peace  returned, 

How  soon  from  perils  once  released, 
The  hand  that  saved  was  spurned  ! 


The  succour  sought  in  trials  sore 
Was  scoffed  at  in  my  pride, 

And  wrath  divine,  appeased  once  more, 
But  slept,  to  be  defieJ. 

How  long,  my  God,  will  pride  prevail  ? 

How  long  will  love  endure  ? 
Thy  pity  feel  for  one  so  frail, 

And  plead  for  one  so  poor  ? 

How  long,  0  God,  will  justice  sleep  ? 

How  long  will  mercy  last  ? 
How  long  ere  penitence  can  weep 

Enough  to  drown  the  past  ? 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 


Sons  and  daughters  of  all  nations, 
Come  with  joyous  acclamations  ! 
Come,  this  blessedCliristmasmorn, 
Praise  and  homage  to  return 
For  God's  greatest  boon  to  earth — 
Thanks  for  our  Redeemer's  birth  ! 

IT. 

Come  with  joyous  transports  holy, 
Love  and  gratitude  most  duly 
Render  for  this  gift  of  heav'n — 
The  Son  of  God  in  mercy  giv'n 
To  man— The  Christ  of  Virgin  born- 
Blessed  be  this  Christmas  morn  1 

]II. 

Come  with  canticles  of  praise, 

And  joyauce  in  those  Christmas  lays, 

That  treat  of  the  alliance  blest 

Of  Christ  with  man,  in  whose  behest 

The  wond'rous  union  Heav'n  directed 

Was  on  this  festival  effected. 

IV. 

Christmas-day  comes  ever  meetly, 
All  its  sounds  breathe  music  sweetly, 
All  it's  blessed  influences 
Soothe  man's  spirit,  soul,  and  senses ; 
Christmas  chimes  and  intonations 
All  of  joy  are  inspirations. 


i>R.    R.    R.    MADDEN. 


161 


IN  MEMOEIAM    MISERICORDLE    DIVINiE.  ^ 

0  Jesus  !  Blessed  Jesus  '.—evermore 

Be  that  sweet  name  of  Thine  in  my  heart's  core, 
And  on  my  lips  oft  daily,  I  implore, 

0  God  of  love !  I 

In  all  temptations,  every  grief  and  care,  I 

In  time  of  trouble,  doubt,  distrust,  despair,  'i 

That  sacred  name— my  theme  of  praise  or  pray'r  . 

Still  may  it  prove ;  i 

My  shield  from  sin,  from  all  the  ills  of  life,  j 

The  evil  gro\^hs  of  passion,  pride,  or  strife,  j 

With  which  this  mortal  pilgrimage  is  rife,  \ 

Beset  from  youth.  j 

1  will  not  fear,  when  I  invoke  Thy  name,  j 
Uy  faith  in  Thee  and  in  Thy  Church  proclaim,  . , 
Though  all  the  world  in  opposition  came,  j 

Against  Thy  truth.  I 

0  Jesus  !  Blessed  Jesus !  at  the  hour  ; 
Of  death,  when  speech  shall  fail,  still  leave  me  pow'r 

To  bear  that  name  in  mind,  and  love  it  more  i 

Than  speech  reveals  ;  ; 

To  feel  the  heavenly  influence  in  my  soul 
When  earth  has  nothing  in  it  to  console 

And  cheer  the  parting  spirit,  and  control  ' 

The  pangs  it  feels. 

:i 

Then,  Jesus  !  Blessed  Jesus  !  on  Thy  death  ■. 

And  on  Thy  Cross — on  her  who  stood  beneath  ] 

In  anguish— let  me  think,  and  gaze  in  faith  ; 

On  Calvary.  i 

1  ask  no  other  blessing,  and  need  none 
My  utmost  hopes  of  happiness  to  crown 
With  those  on  narth  most  lov'd  before  Thy  throne, 

My  Godj  to  be  ! 

30th  October  1868. 


1^ 


162  MEM  OIKS 


IN    MEMORIAM    MISERICORDI^    DIVINJ5. 


Hail,  Blessed  Virgin !  Holy  Mary,  hail ! 
To  love  and  honour  Thee,  how  can  I  fail, 
If  I  adore  thy  Son,  and  would  prevail 
With  Him  in  prayer  ? 


What  intercession  can  there  be  like  thine. 
So  worthy  to  approach  the  throne  divine 
Of  grace,  all  wants  and  miseries  of  mine 
To  plead  for  there  ? 


The  angel's  salutation  in  our  ears 
Sounds  like  the  sweetest  melody :  it  bears 
A  message  from  the  Lord  on  high,  that  cheers 
The  heart  of  man. 


Oh  !  thou  art  "  full  of  grace  ;  "  no  child  of  earth 
So  spotless  ever  mother  did  bring  forth, 
So  pure,  and  so  Immaculate  from  birth  ! 
That  wondrous  plan. 


^Mercy  divine  reveal'd,  and  will'd  that  grace 
And  nature's  union  should  in  thee  take  place, 
Most  perfect,  sinless  of  the  human  race. 
Humble  and  meek  ! 


"  Our  life,  our  sweetness,  and  our  hope  !  "  to  thee 
We  fly  for  refuge  in  our  misery  ; 
Thy  Son  our  Saviour  is  with  thee,  and  we 
That  Saviour  seek. 


In  our  last  moments,  blessed  Mary,  plead; 
•'  For  us,  poor  sinners,"  deign  to  intercede  ! 
Jesus  and  Mary,  be  these  words  decreed 
The  last  I  speak. 


R.  R.  M. 


3,  Vernon  Terrace,  Booterstown,  BOth  October  1868. 


M.     E.     R.     MADDEN.  163 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


PUBLICATION    OF    THE    HI8T0UY    OF    THE    UNITED    IKlSHMEN. 

In  1842  was  published  the  first  series  of  the  History  of  the  United 
Irishmen,  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  magnum  opus  of  the 
author,  and  that  by  which  his  reputation  is  most  likely  to  be  pre- 
served. To  some  it  may  perhaps  seem  "  a  fond  belief "  that  the 
memory  of  the  man  whose  career  forms  the  subject  of  these  pages, 
is  likely  to  survive  the  times  in  which  he  hved  and  moved.  Never- 
theless, the  editor  ventures  to  think  that  as  the  historian  of  the 
United  Irishmen,  the  name  of  Richard  Robert  Madden  will  be 
found  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  wide  roll  of  Irish  literary  celebrities, 
if  erudition,  love  of  country,  painstaking  accuracy,  and  zeal,  devoted 
to  the  rescue  from  obhvion  of  an  important  portion  of  its  history,  may 
afford  any  claims  to  estimation  there.  To  that  work  Dr.  Madden 
dedicated  many  years  of  labour,  and  its  completion  was  accom- 
plished at  a  sacrifice  of  personal  interests  which  few  other  writers 
have  similarly  endured.*  In  these  volumes  was  for  the  first  time 
accurately  traced  the  history  of  the  culmination  of  the  long  period 
of  sectarian  ascendancy  ancl  misrule  in  Ireland  in  the  insurrections 
of  1798  and  1803.  Born  himself  in  the  midst  of  the  scenes  of  '98  ; 
familiar  from  his  youth  with  many  of  the  participators  in  that  up- 
rising, he  possessed  special  qualifications  for  the  task  of  rescuing 
their  memories  from  oblivion,  vindicating  their  motives,  and  point- 
ing out  the  lessons  to  be  learned  from  the  events  he  described. 

Long  before  the  publication  of  the  first  series  of  the  United 
Irishiuen  in  1842,  the  author  had  been  occupied  in  gathering,  abroad 
and  at  home,  the  information  contained  in  these  volumes.  As  he  subse- 
quently stated  in  the  prospectus  to  the  concluding  volumes  of  the 
last  elition,  published  in  1801  : — 

"  Four-and-twenty  years  have  elapsed  since  the  collection  of  the 
materials  for  this  work  was  commenced  by  the  author  in  America, 


*  To  obtain  a  hearinc;  for  the  true  history  of  the  events  connected  with  the  Irish  Insurrec- 
tion of  1798,  no  small  detriment  was  sustained  by  Dr.  Madden.  Thus  the  failure  of  a  pub- 
lisher, &c.,  entailed  an  expenditure  of  upwards  of  five  hundred  pounds  on  the  author. 
Moreover,  from  ls42  to  1847  he  suffered  dei^rivation  of  employment  in  the  Colonial  service,  in 
which  his  previous  appointment  was  one  of  £1400  a  year,  and  the  cessation  of  which  was 
directly  and  entirely  due  to  the  publication  of  the  History  of  the  United  Irishmen  (vido 
appendix).  These  circumstances  were  alluded  to  in  the  prospectus  of  the  last  edition,  in  which  ho 
merely  observed : — "  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  preat  sacrifices,  into  which  it  is  unnecessary  to 
enter,  have  been  made  by  the  writer  to  accomplish  a  task  which  he  believed  it  was  advantage' 
ous  for  his  counti^  to  have  undertaken." 

12  * 


164  MEMOIRS 


where  several  of  the  leaders  of  the  Society  of  United  Irishmen  were 
then  living.  Similar  materials  were  afterwards  secured  for  it  on 
the  continent ;  and  from  the  surviving  actors  in  the  struggles  of 
1798  and  1803,  and  from  their  friends  and  relatives,  abroad  and  at 
home,  a  vast  amount  of  original  infarmation,  and  a  great  number 
of  authentic  documents,  the  most  important  that  have  ever  been 
obtained  are  embodied  in  these  pages.  Most  of  the  persons  from 
whom  they  were  procured  have  passed  away  since  the .  commence- 
ment of  these  labours ;  and  had  such  a  publication  as  the 
present  been  much  longer  delayed,  the  opportunity  would  have  been 
lost  of  obtaining  that  information ;  and  the  history  of  one  of  the 
most  important  periods  of  British  rule  in  Ireland  must  have 
remained  involved  in  the  darkness  and  confusion  by  which  ignorance, 
prejudice,  and  misrepresentation  had  surrounded  it.  The  materials 
for  the  biographies  of  those  whose  memories  are  included  in  the 
present  volumes  have  been  placed  in  the  author's  hands,  either  by 
their  immediate  relatives  or  by  friends  who  had  been  intimately 
connected  with  them  in  private  life,  or  in  their  political  projects. 
It  is  the  belief  and  hope  of  the  narrator  that  the  time  has  arrived 
when  the  history  of  the  United  Irishmen  may  be  written  without 
provoking  the  rancour  of  persons  opposed  to  their  principles,  or  lacer- 
ating the  feelings  of  their  surviving  relatives.  The  main  purpose 
of  this  work  has  been  to  obtain  a  hearing  at  home  and  abroad  for  the 
true  history  of  the  Rebellion  of  1798,  the  causes  of  its  provocation, 
the  calamities  it  occasioned,  and  the  wrongs  which  the  Irish  j^eople 
endured  during  that  period  at  the  hands  of  a  bad  government,  a 
bigoted  oligarchy,  a  privileged  faction,  a  corrupt  parliament,  and  an 
army  let  loose  upon  that  people,  v,'hich  was  formidable,  in  the  words 
of  Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie,  '  to  every  one  hut  the  enemy.''  A.  work  of 
this  kind,  faithfully  executed,  the  writer  believed,  was  calculated  to 
be  serviceable  by  preventing  the  possibility  of  a  recurrence  to  the 
system  of  misrule  which  prevailed  in  Ireland  in  times  past,  by  ex- 
hibiting the  evils  of  bad  government — the  necessitated  agency  of 
spies,  mercenary  informers,  and  sanguinary  adherents — by  exposing 
the  wickedness  of  exasperating  popular  irritation,  or  fomenting  re- 
belhon  for  State  purposes,  and  then  employing  savage  and  inhuman 
means  to  defeat  it.  Tbis  history,  he  believed,  was  calculated  to 
turn  men  from  ill-considered  projects  against  oppression,  show- 
ing by  the  experience  of  the  past,  that  unsuccessful  efforts  against 
misrule  never  fail  to  give  new  strength  to  despotism.  It  was  calcu- 
lated, he  thought,  to  convince  the  jjeople  of  the  folly  of  entering 
into  secret  associations,  with  the  idea  of  keeping  plans  against  op- 
pression unknown,  through  the  instrumentality  of  oaths  and  tests, 
by  setting  forth  the  manifold  dangers  in  such  times  as  those  of 
1798,  to  v;hich  misguided  patriotism  is  exposed  from  temptations 
to  treachery  on  the  part  of  associates.     The  author,  in  hne,  believed 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  165 


that  the  History  of  the  Lives  and  Times  of  the  United  Irishmen, 
embracing  a  succmct  accoiiut  of  the  crimes  and  sufferings  connected 
with  the  provocation  and  suppression  of  the  Rebelhon  of  1798, 
could  not  fail  to  render  any  future  attempt  to  estabHsh  another 
Irish  reign  of  terror  utterly  abortive." 

The  first  series  was  published  in  1842  ;  the  second  in  1843  ; 
the  third  in  1846.  The  whole  work  comprised  seven  vols, 
octavo.  The  mode  of  publication  made  it  impossible  to  arrange 
the  materials,  which  came  to  the  writer's  hands  from  different 
countries  during  those  intervening  years,  with  sufficient  order. 
Notwithstanding,  tbe  History  of  the  United  Irishmen  was  emmeiitly 
successful.  It  has  been  long  out  of  print ;  and  frequent  demands 
for  it  have  been  made  for  several  years  past  from  Australia,  Canada, 
and  the  United  States,  as  well  as  England.  The  unsettled  state  of 
the  law  of  copyright  has  been  productive  of  much  injury  to  the 
author  and  his  work  in  America.  It  has  been  pirated  and  re-printed 
there  in  various  forms.  Elsewhere  the  same  unauthorized  use  has 
been  made  of  his  labours.  These  circumstances  led  to  the 
appearance  of  a  new  edition  commenced  in  1858.  This  has  been 
carefully  revised  and  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  much  new  docu- 
mentary and  other  authentic  information,  and  entirely  re-arranged 
so  as  to  bring  the  matter  of  the  original  series  of  seven  volumes, 
as  well  as  the  additional  materials,  now  first  published,  into  four 
volumes,  each  complete  (and  containing  nearly  double  the  amount 
of  matter  of  any  volume  of  the  former  edition). 

The  historical  value  of  The  Lives  and  Times  of  the  United  Irish- 
men has  been  well  recognized  by  almost  every  subsequent  writer 
on  this  subject. 

A  recent  French  historian,  M.  Guillen,  in  his  erudite  work, 
entitled  La  France  et  HIrlande  Pendant  la  Revolution,  pays  the 
following  tribute  to  this  History  of  '98  :  — 

"  As  to  the  United  Irishmen,  their  history  has  been  narrated  in 
a  book  which  we  cannot  but  borrow  from,  unless  by  protending  to 
re-write  it — namely,  that  published  by  Dr.  Richard  Madden,  entitled 
Tlie  United  Irishmen.  This  work,  dedicated  to  Lord  Brougham, 
was  published  in  series  :  the  first  in  1842,  the  second  in  1843,  and 
the  third  in  1846.  A  second  edition  of  the  whole  was  given  in 
1858,  the  fourth  volume  of  which  appeared  in  1800.  Besides  these, 
the  author  has  left  a  collection  of  numerous  and  hitherto  unpublished 
documents.  The  work  of  Madden  is  at  once  the  most  complete  and 
the  most  graphic  that  can  be  consulted  on  this  subject.  It  is 
written  with  the  exactitude  of  a  historian,  and,  moreover,  with  the 
ardour  of  an  Irish  Nationalist."* 


*  La  France  et  L'lrlande  Pendant  la  devolution,  Par  E.  Guillou,  Avec  une  I'refacepar  M. 
Hippolyte  Camot,  \u  11.    Paris,  ly8«. 


166  MEMOIES 


In  the  University  Magazine,  The  Lives  and  Times  of  the  United 
Irishmen  is  thus  referred  to  :  — 

"  With  Dr.  Madden  this  work  was  evidently  a  '  labour  of  love.* 
He  has  undoubtedly  displayed  great  ability,  industry,  and  research 
in  depicting  the  eventful  and  tragic  career  of  the  leading  spirits 
who  inspired  the  insurrections  of  '98  and  1803 — men,  concerning 
whom  it  may  be  truly  said,  that  if  they  loved  their  country,  *  not 
wisely  but  too  well,'  their  patriotism  was  at  least  unselfish  and 
devoted." 

Finally,  not  to  quote  further  from  the  many  eulogistic  reviews  of 
the  fourth  edition  of  Ihe  United  Irishmen,  The  Nation,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  author's  death  in  February   1886,  has  observed : — 

"  By  this  magnificent  work  Dr.  Madden  made  Ireland  his  debtor, 
and  he  will  be  followed  to  the  grave  by  the  affectionate  regrets  and 
sympathetic  sighs  of  his  countrymen,  who  never  forget  a  great  or 
faithful  service  such  as  that  rendered  by  the  distinguished  literateur 
whose  death  it  is  our  sad  duty  to  record.  Considered  altogether  as 
a  monograph  on  an  eventful  historical  period,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
find  its  equal  in  the  literature  of  the  world.  In  comprehensive- 
ness, in  completeness,  in  accuracy,  and  in  every  quality  to  the  dis- 
play of  which  indefatigable  industry  and  enthusiastic  zeal  were 
necessary,  we  do  not  know  of  its  equal."* 


CHAPTER  XXIII, 

COREESPONDENCE    WITH    SIR   WILLIAM    NAPIER,    ETC. 

The  following  correspondence  may  in  this  connexion  be  interest- 
ing as  affording  corroboration  by  an  eye-witness  of  some  of  the 
scenes  and  events  described  in  the  history  of  the  United  Irishmen, 
from  one  whose  distinguished  reputation  as  a  soldier  and  a  historian, 
renders  his  testimony  most  valuable  as  to  the  accuracy  and  mode- 
ration of  Dr.  Madden's  Memoirs  of  '98.  Immediately  after  the 
publication  of  the  first  series  of  that  work,  Major-General  Sir 
William  Napier,  the  historian  of  the  Peninsular  War,  then 
Governor  of  Guernsey,  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the  author — 

*  Scattered  through  Dr.  Madden's  writings  are  a  number  of  poetical  pieces,  composed  at  an 
early  period  of  his  life,  referring  to  the  leaders  of  the  United  Irishmen,  and  to  events  con- 
nected with  the  history  of  '98.  Many  of  these  have  never  yet  been  printed,  others  appeared  in 
the  Nation  many  years  ago,  others  again  have  been  more  recently  given  over  the  signa- 
tui-e  "  I  ERNE  "  in  his  posthumous  volume  of  The  Literary  Remains  of  the  United  Irishmen. 
Messrs.  Duffy,  Dublin,  1887 ;  and  some  of  these  may  be  found  in  the  appendix. 


DR.    B.    R.    MADDEN.  167 


(From  Major-General  Napier  to  R.  K.  M.). 

Guernsey,  July  31st,  1842. 

Dear  Sir, — I  have  just  read,  with  great  interest,  your  work  upon 
the  United  Irishmen,  and  I  hasten  to  correct  an  error  into  which 
you  have  naturally  enough  fallen.  The  Captain  Armstrong  men- 
tioned in  my  mother's  journal,  which  you  have  quoted  from  Moore's 
'  Life  of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,'  was  a  totally  dififerent  person 
from  the  betrayer  of  the  Sheares.  He  was  a  Captain  of  the  Lon- 
donderry Regiment  of  the  Line,  and  having  served  under  my  father, 
\dsited  our  house  as  a  friend.  He  was  in  no  way  connected  with 
the  other,  and  is  now,  if  alive,  a  General  officer.  He  will  be  ill- 
pleased  at  the  mistake. 

I  remain,  dear  sir, 

Your  obedient  servant, 
William  Napier,  Major-General. 
R.  R.  Madden,  Esq.,  M.D. 


(From  Major-General  Napier  to  R.  R.  M.) 

Guernsey,  August  14th,  1842. 

Dear  Sir, — I  am  glad  that  you  feel  pleased  with  the  correction 
of  an  error  into  which  it  was  very  natural  for  you  to  have  fallen, 
but  I  do  not  think  you  need  reproach  yourself  for  any  injustice 

towards  the  S A ,  the  blackness  of  whose  infamy  is  of  too 

deep  a  darkness  to  show  any  additional  stain.  I  have  also  a  vague 
notion  that  he  did  at  a  later  period  call  upon  my  aunt.  Lady  Louisa 
Connolly,  either  with  a  view  to  deceive  her,  or  to  obtain  some  favour, 
and  that  she  treated  him  with  that  freezing  dignity  which  her  in- 
nate abhorrence  of  vice  enabled  her  to  assume  with  more  effect 
than  can  well  be  believed  by  those  who  never  saw  her. 

I  am,  indeed,  sure  that  something  of  the  kind  happened,  but 
when,  I  cannot  recollect. 

*****  :jc 

The  "Dublin  Evening  Packet"  has  just  been  put  into  my 
hands,  and  I  find  an  article  full  of  foul  abuse  of  your  work.  This 
of  course  you  must  expect.  The  writer  accuses  you  of  exagger- 
ation ;  but,  as  far  as  my  knowledge  extends,  and  it  is  not  a  confined 
knowledge  of  the  subject  you  have  treated,  you  might  be  more  reason- 
ably accused  of  softening  the  horrid  features  of  cruelty  displayed 
by  the  Government  party,  and  I  do  not  wonder  that  the  organs  of 


168  MEMOIBS 


that  party  should  now  wince  and  tremble  at  the  just  retribution  of 
history.  The  bad  deeds  of  those  unhappy  times  should  be  held  up 
to  the  execration  of  mankind  as  a  warning  to  deter  men  from  re- 
peating them,  and  the  way  in  which  you  are  doing  so  is  honourable 
to  you,  and  will  be,  I  hope,  useful  to  the  world. 

I  see  you  have  quoted  from  a  review  written  by  me  upon  Sir 
John  Moore's  life.  The  facts  I  have  related  there  are  all  taken 
from  that  great  and  good  man's  papers,  and  are  strictly  correct.  It 
is  difficult  for  me  to  add  to  your  information,  but  it  would  be  well 
to  notice  one  matter  in  reference  to  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald. 

Credit  is  given  to  Lord  Camden  for  feelings  of  commiseration 
towards  Lady  Louisa  Connolly  when  she  applied  to  him  in  vain  for 
leave  to  see  her  dying  nephew,  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  and  Lord 
Clare  is  accused  of  harsh  and  stern  indifference  to  her  prayers. 
Now  it  is  just  the  reverse.  Lord  Camden  displayed  the  most 
callous  indifference  to  her  misery,  and  Lord  Clare  showed  great  feel- 
ing and  warmth  and  delicacy  of  character. 

I  have  no  liking  for  either,  and  as  a  politician  I  abhor  Lord  Clare 
the  most,  because  of  his  actions  and  energy  in  evil ;  whereas  Lord 
Camden  was  a  mere  fool,  with  the  fibres  of  intellect  insensible  to  ex- 
ternal objects.  But  truth  is  truth,  and  Lord  Clare  behaved  like  a 
man  of  feeling  and  generosity  on  that  occasion.  Lady  Louisa  Connolly, 
having  her  niece.  Miss  Emily  Napier,  with  her,  went  to  Lord  Cam- 
den and  prayed  him  long  and  earnestly,  in  vain,  to  let  her  visit 
Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  in  his  prison.  When  she  came  to  her 
carriage  she  said,  with  a  violence  of  feeling  the  more  remarkable 
from  its  contrast  with  the  sedate  and  tranquil  dignity  which  be- 
longed to  her  character — *'  I,  who  never  before  kneeled  to  aught 
but  my  God,  grovelled  at  that  man's  feet  in  vain." 

From  the  Castle  she  drove  to  Lord  Clare's  house.  He  was  at 
dinner,  but  he  came  out  instantly  to  her  carriage,  having  his  nap- 
kin in  his  hand.  She  asked  him  for  an  order  to  see  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald.  He  said  "  he  could  not  give  her  one,  it  had  been  so 
settled  ;  "  but  seeing  the  strong  emotion  excited  by  the  answer,  he 
added,  abruptly^ — "  But  I  can  go  with  you,  and  let  you  into  the 
jail."  Then  jumping  into  the  carriage,  having  his  napkin  still  in 
his  hand,  he  drove  to  the  jail,  introduced  her,  and  after  some  time 
came  out  to  Miss  Napier,  and  said — "  Lady  Louisa  will  be  here  a 
long  time  ;  it  is  not  fitting  you  should  remain  here.  I  will  remain 
with  her."  And  then  placing  a  police  officer  behind  the  carriage 
to  protect  it,  he  sent  Miss  Napier  home,  returned  to  the  outer  room 
of  Lord  Edward's  prison,  and  remained  for  three  or  four  hours, 
waiting  Lady  Louisa's  time  of  departure. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  dear  sir, 
Your  obedient  servant, 

W.  Napier. 


DE.    R.    E.    MADDEN.  169 


(To  Sir  W.  Napier  from  R.  R.  M.) 

48,  Sloane-square,  Chelsea,  August  QSth,  1842. 

Dear  Sir, — Your  note  of   the  14th  instant  I  can  truly  say  af- 
forded me  as  much  gratification  as  I  can  derive  from  any  circum- 
stance connected  with  my  late  undertaking.     To  learn  that  I  have 
not  failed  in  my  efforts  to  promote  the  ends  of  humanity  and  justice, 
is  indeed  the  highest  praise  I  could  aspire  to.     I  hardly  hoped  in 
any  quarter  to  find  my  motives  for  undertaking  this  work  rightly 
appreciated,  and  not  the  less  so  from  a  sense  of  the  inadequate 
powers  I  brought  to  the  performance  of  it.     The  motives  which  in- 
duced me  to  put  together  these    memorials    of    The    Lives    and 
Times  of  the   United  Irishmen,  you  will  readily  believe,  were  not 
actuated  by  considerations  of  pecuniary  advantage.     The  choice  of 
my  subject,  the  repugnance  to  it  of  the  public  taste  in  England,  I 
need  hardly  say  are  conclusive  as  to  my  views  in  that  respect.     If 
my  object  had  been  to  promote  my  interests  in  official  quarters,  as 
a  person  employed  for  the  Inst  nine  years  in  the  public  service,  and 
reasonably  expecting  still  to  be  so,  the  method  1  have  taken  of  en- 
hancing my  claims  at  the  present  moment  must  appear  somewhat 
questionable,  and  the  disclosures  I  have  made  less  Ukely  to  propi- 
tiate the  favour  of  the   men  who  are,    than  those   who   were,  in 
Downing-street  twelve  months  ago.     A  portion  of  the  Press,  and  I 
am  sorry  to  say  even  of  the  Liberal  Press  of  London,  represent  my 
object  to  be  mischievous,  and  reprobate  ;  the  act  of  referring  to  the 
atrocities  of  "  '98"  as  a  renewal  of  painful  recollections  that  ought 
to  be  buried  in  oblivion. 

The  burying  in  oblivion  of  the  wrongs  of  the  injured  is  one  of 
those  benevolent  recommendations  whose  cheap  charity  is  intended 
to  cover  a  multitude  of  sins,  for  a  more  tender  regard  for  character 
than  actual  concern  for  the  ills  that  have  been  inflicted  or 
endured.  These  writers  have  no  objection  to  the  history  of  any  other 
portion  of  the  globe,  but  there  is  something  sacred  in  atrocities  per- 
petrated in  Ireland.  Such  events  are  regarded  by  too  many  in  England 
with  a  kind  of  indefinite  feeling  of  pride  and  prejudice,  and  with 
only  a  vague  recollection  of  the  wrongdo(n^s  having  been  originally 
of  their  own  land  and  Hneage,  and  of  the  old  plea  for  plunder  and 
oppression,  the  barbarity  of  the  spoiled  and  the  enslaved  having 
been  at  all  times  held  entitled  to  respect.  These  gentlemen  seem 
to  think  that  the  laws  of  God  and  man  may  be  outraged  with  im- 
punity, if  a  decent  covering  is  ooly  thrown  over  the  enormities, 
and  once  they  had  been  shrouded  by  oblivion,  that  it  was  an  act  of 
indecorum  to  lift  the  pall. 

The  history  of  the  Rebellion  of  1798,  however,  seemed  to  me  to 
be  the  great  Morgue  of  the  talent  and  enthusiasm,  as  well  as  of  the 

crimes  and  cruelties  of  our  unhappy  country,  where  its  children 


no  MEMOIRS 


had  to  seek  out  their  dead,  and  to  separate  the  remains  of  those 
they  loved  and  honoured  from  the  common  mass  of  festering  mor- 
tahty.  There  is  a  mawkish  sensibiHty  prevalent  which  resembles 
the  intense  selfishness  of  Goethe  in  his  latter  years,  who  never  al- 
lowed his  friends  or  domestics  to  speak  in  his  presence,  or  of  his 
family  of  any  calamity  that  might  have  happened  in  the  neighbour- 
hood. He  could  pour  out  tears,  or  cause  those  of  others  to  flow 
over  the  romantic  sorrows  of  his  Werter  :  but  he  had  none  to  shed 
for  the  real  miseries  of  life  around  him,  and  rather  than  pain  his 
feelings,  he  thought  it  better  to  withold  assistance  from  them. 
Really  this  is  the  sjoirit  which  unfortunately  still  seems  to  actuate  some 
Englishmen  when  they  hear  of  the  wTongs  that  have  been  inflicted 
on  our  people,  and  shrug  their  shoulders  and  ask  with  apparent 
surprise — "  Will  that  people  never  be  at  peace  ?  Will  they  ever 
have  wisdom  ?  "  Such  is  the  language  of  the  Literary  Gazette,  the 
Spectator,  the  Desjmtch,  the  Atlas,  all  papers  more  or  less  of  Liberal 
politics.  The  fact  is,  they  do  not  love  Orangeism  :  its  orgies  to 
them  are  at  times  a  little  too  incomprehensible  to  be  objects  of  un- 
mixed admiration,  but  there  is  no  mistake  about  the  iU  repute  of 
the  mere  Irishry. 

It  is  not  that  they  have  any  peculiar  afl'ection  for  the  Sirrs, 
Sandys,  Swans,  the  Beresfords,  Castlereaghs,  the  Reynolds,  the 
Verners,  Rodens,  or  Bradshaws,  but  that  they  have  a  mortal  anti- 
pathy to  the  Irish  people.  Other  motives  have  been  attributed  to 
me  somewhat  more  preposterous  than  any  I  have  taken  the  trouble 
to  disclaim.  But  what  motive  could  possibly  induce  any  man  to 
wade  through  the  iniquities  of  1798,  and  to  give  an  historical 
notice  of  that  dark  period,  but  the  hatred  of  oppression  and  injus- 
tice. That  motive,  I  avow,  was  the  only  one  which  induced  me  to 
take  up  this  subject.  The  circumstances  in  which  I  have  been 
placed  in  connection  with  the  efl'orts  of  our  Government  for  the 
suppression  of  slavery  and  the  Slave-Trade  during  many  years  past, 
were  not  calculated  to  make  a  man  a  bad  hater  of  oppression  in 
any  country.  In  fact,  the  struggle  against  its  most  detestable 
forms,  whether  in  the  West  Indies  or  on  the  shores  of  Africa, 
served  me  as  an  apprenticeship  to  the  cause  of  general  freedom. 

I  could  not  understand  that  sort  of  philanthrophy  which  battled 
for  the  interests  of  humanity  and  justice  when  they  were  outraged 
only  in  the  persons  of  black  men  ;  which  made  the  world  ring  with 
the  echoes  of  cart  whips  and  the  cries  of  the  slaves  who  w^ere  four 
thousand  miles  away ;  which  had  one  set  of  nerves  exquisitely  sen- 
sitive to  the  suff'erings  of  men  who  were  victims  to  the  cupidity  of 
the  West  Indian  planters,  and  another  callous  and  insensible  to  the 
wrongs  of  those  whose  persecutors  were  Orangemen.  What  matters 
it,  indeed,  whether  negro  men  are  held  guilty  of  a  skin  not  ''  colour- 
ed hke  our  own,"  or  that  the  "  mere  Irishry  "  are  culpable  of  a 


DR.    R.     R.     MADDEN.  171 


creed  not  conformed  to  the  fashion  of  the  provincial  Bradshaws  ? 
The  same  injustice  in  either  case  prevailed,  and  to  pretend  to  sym- 
pathise with  the  victims  of  it  alone,  who  had  been  natives  of  Africa, 
or  descendants  of  Africans,  it  seemed  to  me  would  be  a  spurious 
kind  of  benevolence  ;  and  having  long  devoted  heart  and  hand  to 
the  cause  of  justice  and  humanity  in  the  West  Indies  and  in  Africa, 
I  felt  it  impossible  to  get  rid  of  the  conviction  that  the  outrages 
committed  in  Ireland,  particularly  during  the  last  rebellion,  had 
never  been  surpassed  in  any  country.  Feeling  this  conviction  very 
strongly,  I  thought  it  was  my  duty,  as  freely  as  I  had  denounced 
the  cruelties  of  the  slave-holders  in  the  British  or  the  Spanish 
colonies,  or  the  ravages  of  the  man  robbers  on  the  coast  of  Africa, 
to  reprobate  the  enormities  of  the  sanguinary  faction  which  tramples 
on  Ireland,  and  to  make  an  example  of  its  wickedness,  so  that  even 
bad  men  might  be  deterred  by  its  obloquy  from  ever  imitating  it. 

I  have  trespassed  I  fear  to  a  most  unreasonable  extent  on  your 
time  and  patience,  but  you  will  kindly  make  allowance  for  my 
anxiety  on  this  subject  and  my  desire  to  leave  some  explanation  of 
my  views  in  such  hands  as  yours.  The  circumstances  you  were 
good  enough  to  inform  me  of  respecting  Lady  Louisa  Connolly's 
visit  to  poor  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  are  dee2)ly  interesting,  and 
corroborative  indeed  of  my  previous  impression  of  Lord  Camden's 
utter  heartlessness. 

May  I  avail  myself  of  that  fact  in  the  forthcoming  series  of  my 
work  ?  I  consider  the  materials  that  are  in  my  hands  for  it  of  far 
more  value  than  any  I  have  made  use  of  in  my  late  volumes. 
Your  name  has  been  made  so  familiar  to  me  for  many  years  by  my 
old  friend  Major  Hopkins,  that  I  almost  feel  I  am  addressing  one 
with  whom  I  had  been  long  acquainted.  Perhaps  this  circumstance 
may  afford  some  apology  for  this  lengthy  communication. 

I  am,  dear  sir, 

Yours  very  truly, 

R.  R.  Madden. 

(From  Major- General  Napier  to  R.  R.  M.) 

Guernsey,  1st  September  1842. 

My  dear  sir, — Your  motives  in  writing  your  work  cannot  be  mis- 
taken by  any  honest  man  who  reads  it,  and  I  would  cast  to  the 
winds  all  thoughts  about  the  attacks  which  have  been  made  upon 
you  by  those  double  dealing  and  double  talking  knaves,  for  they  are 
no  better,  who,  with  professions  of  freedom  on  their  lips,  have  no- 
thing but  self-interest  and  treachery  in  their  hearts. 

Mr.  Reynold's  attack  upon  you  is  curious,  in  its  logic  at  least. 


172  MEMOIRS 


You  must  go  to  heaven  or  hell.  If  to  heaven,  your  calumnies  can- 
not have  been  very  black  ;  if  to  hell,  he  must  have  some  secret 
misgivings  as  to  the  place  his  father  lies  in. 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

Wm.  Napier. 
E.  R.  Madden,  Esq. 


There  is  a  remarkable  confirmation  of  the  fact  referred  to  by 
Major- General  Napier  of  Lady  Louisa  Connolly's  visit  to  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald,  accompanied  by  Lord  Clare,  previously  to  her 
visit  along  with  Lord  Henry  Fitzgerald  on  the  3rd  of  June  (which 
also  is  recorded  by  Moore),  in  one  of  the  debates  in  the  House  of 
Peers  on  the  subject  of  the  attainder,  in  which  Lord  Glare,  speak- 
ing in  a  becoming  manner  of  the  circumstances  connected  with 
Lord  Edward's  death,  said  "  he  well  remembered  them,  for  a  short 
time  before  the  death  took  place  he  was  witness  to  one  of  the  most 
painful  and  melancholy  scenes  he  had  ever  experienced." 


R.   R.   M.  to  James  Stephens,  Esq.,   Under  Secretary,  Colonial 
Office,  on  the  History  of  the  Rebellion  of*  1798. 

7,  Panton- square,  London, 
July  1845. 

My  dear  Sir, — If  the  remarks  you  make  on  the  severity  of  my  stric- 
tures on  the  Castlereaghs,  Clares,  &c.,  had  been  addressed  to  me  by  one 
whose  opinions  were  not  tinctured  with  that  Christian  philosophy 
which  is  derived  from  other  sources  besides  those  most  famihar  to  our 
literati,  it  would  have  been  an  easy  matter  to  have  defended  my 
work  from  the  •  application  of  those  observations.  I  might  have 
stated  with  truth  that  the  cruelties  perpetrated  on  the  people  of 
L^eland  in  1798  were  the  result  of  the  iniquitous  measures  which 
Clare  and  Castlereagh  in  Ireland  were  mainly  responsible  for. 
That  a  hcentious  soldiery,  and  an  infuriated  faction,  were  let  loose 
on  the  country ;  that  a  free-quarter  system,  and  the  general  prac- 
tice of  scourging  people  for  the  purpose  of  extorting  confessions  of 
criminality,  were  carried  into  effect  with  the  full  knowledge,  sanc- 
tion, and  approval  of  these  persons  ;  that  the  proclamations  bearing 
the  names  of  Camden  and  Clare,  the  Insurrection  and  Indemnity 
Bills,  were  acts  which  emanated  from  the  councils  which  were 
guided  by  them. 

I  might  have  added,  that  while  the  cruelties  inflicted  on  the 
Indians  of  the  New  World  were  justly  reprobated  by  mankind ; 


DE.    R.    E,   MADDEN.  1^8 


while  their  authors  were  stigmatized  by  our  historians  as  men  of 
barbarous  and  sanguinary  dispositions ;  while  the  sufferings  of 
negro  slaves  under  the  cart  whips  of  Colonial  planters  brought 
down  the  righteous  denunciations  of  the  British  Press  on  the  op- 
pressors of  our  negro  brethren  ;  while  the  frightful  wrongs  inflicted 
on  humanity  by  the  slave-dealers  on  the  coast  of  Africa  caused  even 
official  language  to  introduce  into  its  vocabulary  suah  epithets  as 
"miscreants,"  "monsters,"  "enemies  to  the  human  race,"  &c.,  (for  with 
such  epithets  we  find  the  Parliamentary  Slave-Trade  papers  teem), 
— the  tortures  inflicted,  and  the  cruelties  practised  on  human 
beings  who  were  more  immediately  entitled  to  our  sympathy  because 
they  were  more  within  reach  of  our  protection ;  in  point  of  national 
consanguinity  more  of  "  our  own  flesh,"  and  in  respect  to  religious 
relationship  bound  to  us  in  stricter  bonds  of  Christian  fellowship, 
deserved  to  be  placed  in  the  same  category  of  wrongs,  and  to  be 
ranked  among  the  oppressions  "  that  were  the  worst  that  had  ever 
been  done  under  the  sun." 

The  nature  of  the  evils  thus  inflicted  or  endured  is  the  same  wherever 
they  existed,  whether  the  violators  of  human  rights  were  Spaniard, 
Portuguese,  or  Briton — whether  they  lived  in  a  bygone  age  or 
within  our  own  remembrance, — those  which  are  recorded  in  one  of 
the  darkest  pages  of  Irish  history,  and  are  inseparably  connected 
with  Lords  Castlereagh  and  Clare.  For  their  memories  it  mi^dit 
be  wished  that  Ireland  had  no  history  ;  but  for  the  country  it  is 
not  to  be  desired  that  the  story  of  her  wrongs  should  be  consigned 
to  oblivion  ;  and  I  might  ask,  how  was  that  history  to  be  told,  and 
yet  to  leave  the  public  conduct  of  the  Clares,  Cooks,  and  Castle- 
reaghs  unceusured  ?  Were  the  subordinate  agents  of  their  govern- 
ments, the  spies  and  informers,  tlie  lictors  and  terrorists  of  that 
day,  the  men  "  who  measured  their  consequence  by  the  coffins  of 
their  victims,"  and  estimated  their  services  by  the  injuries  they  in- 
flicted on  the  people, — were  they  alone,  the  official  insects  of  the 
hour,  to  be  preserved  in  the  eloquent  invective  of  a  Curran  or  a 
Grattan,  while  the  acts  of  their  exalted  employers  and  abettors 
were  to  be  sponged  out  of  memory  ?  Philantrophy  that  is  not  based 
on  a  general  attachment  to  the  cause  of  liberty  and  the  interests  of 
humanity,  without  reference  to  time  or  place,  creed,  colour^  or  con- 
dition, is  built  on  a  false  foundation  ;  and  equally  fatal  to  security  is 
that  spirit  of  rancour  with  which  its  advocates  are  wont  to  assail 
opponents  of  their  opinions  or  enemies  of  their  cause. 

Among  the  papers  of  those  United  Irishmen  which  have  fallen 
into  my  hands,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  one  of  them  by  Sir  Z. 
Egerton  Brydges,  i  lind  the  following  passage,  speaking  of  the  obh- 
gations  of  those  ,who  love  letters  to  the  characters  of  the  votaries 
of  learning  : — 

"  To  me  literature  has  always  appeared  one  of  the  few  uuchaug- 


174  MEMOIRS 


ing,  inexhaustible  balms  of  life  ;  and  if  we  love  literature,  it  seems 
to  me  very  strange  not  to  feel  a  warm  benevolence  towards  its  pro- 
fessors." Surely  we  may  apply  this  obligation  of  benevolence  to 
the  whole  circle  of  human  nature.  The  sole  object  I  had  in  view 
in  undertaking  this  work  was,  by  a  faithful  exhibition  of  the  crimes 
and  calamities  of  civil  war,  to  prevent  the  entertainment  of  a 
thought  unaccompanied  with  horror  of  a  recurrence  of  the  evils  I 
pointed  out.  This  long  letter  is,  in  fact,  a  preface  to  the  assurance 
that  your  opinion  on  the  subject  ought  not  to  be  lost  sight  of  ;  and 
believe  me,  I  receive  it  with  more  thankfulness  than  any  expression 
of  unqualified  approval  that  could  be  given. 


I  am,  dear  sir, 

Yours  very  truly, 

Richard  R.  Madden. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

ACCOUNT    OF  OTHER  LITERARY  LABOURS  AND   WORKS. 

We  may  now  very  briefly  refer  to  some  of  the  other  works  in  which 
our  author's  diversified  literary  abilities  were  exemplified.  01 
these  the  earliest  were  his  Travels  in  the  East,  and  The  Mussulman, 
A  Novel,  the  former  published  in  1829,  and  the  latter  in  1830, 
which  have  already  been  noticed.  Three  years  subsequently,  one  of 
the  most  interesting  of  his  writings,  viz. :  The  Infirmities  of  Genius,  was 
published  in  two  volumes  by  Saunders  and  Otley,  London,  1833. 
Of  that  work  the  author,  at  his  death,  left  a  revised  edition  ready 
for  the  printer,  the  present  publication  of  which  as  a  popular  treatise 
on  an  interesting  and  still  much  neglected  subject,  might  probably 
prove  advantageous. 

*'  We  have,"  says  a  reviewer,  "  been  delighted  with  the  perusal 
of  these  volumes,  and  we  pronounce  them  a  boon  to  those  who  work 
in  the  literary  mill.  All  men  of  genius — the  acknowledged,  who 
are  too  few,  and  the  unacknowledged,  who  are  too  many,  and  even 
the  self-estimated,  who  are  countless — will,  we  are  convinced,  derive 
from  these  pages  more  practical  benefit  than  from  any  other  work 
that  has  yet  appeared,  tending  to  show  the  cause  and  cure  of  those 
gentle  aberrations  of  intellect  that  seem  inseparable  from  the  poetic 
temperament.  In  fine,  this  book  is  an  excellent  companion  and 
CjDunterpart  to  D'Israeli's   Curiosities   of  Literature,    and   equally 


DR.     R.     R.     MADDEN.  175 

deserves  patronage  from  the  present  age,  and  a  long  existence  as  a 
work  indispensable  to  be  known  in  future  ones ;  as  its  views  are 
beneficient,  as  its  arguments  are  acute." — The  Metropolitan 
Magazine,  London,  July  1838. 

With  regard  to  Dr.  Madden's  next  works,  namely,  his  Travels  in 
the  West  Indies,  published  in  London  in  1835,  and  re-printed  in 
Philadelphia  in  the  same  year  ;  Egypt  and  Mahomed  All,  in  1841  ; 
his  African  Reports,  with  appendix,  two  volumes,  in  1812  ;  and  his 
unpubHshed  religious  poems,  Breathings  of  Prayer,  printed  at  the 
Havana  in  1838,  we  need  add  nothing  here,  inasmuch  as  these 
have  been  noticed  in  earlier  chapters. 

In  1845,  being  then  in  Lisbon,  he  brought  out  a  work  on 
The  Connexion  hetween  the  Kingdom  of  Ireland  ayid  the  Crown  of 
England,  pubhshed  "  at  the  request  of  the  Committee  of  the 
Repeal  Association,"  and  dedicated — "  To  the  People  of  England 
who  love  Justice,  and  the  People  of  Ireland  who  long  for  it."  Long 
afterwards,  in  an  article  on  the  occasion  of  the  author's  death,  this 
volume  was  described  in  the  Times  of  February  8th,  1886,  as — "  a 
contribution  to  the  Irish  Question  of  the  period  which  might  still  be 
referred  to  with  profit,"  and  it  may  be  added  that  its  re-issue  would 
be  well  worth  consideration  at  the  present  time. 

In  1847  was  published  the  first  edition  of  his  History  of 
the  Penal  Laws  enacted  against  Pioman  Catholics,  re-published  by 
Richardson  in  1865,  the  manuscript  for  a  revised  and  enlarged 
edition  of  which  was  left  ready  for  the  printer  at  his  death  in  1886. 
This  book  has  been  characterized  as  "  startling,  impressive,  and 
methodic.  The  author's  name  (says  the  Nation,  March  18th,  1848), 
is  respected,  for  he  has  deserved  well  of  Ireland.  In  the  truest 
sense  a  citizen  of  the  world,  he  has  served  his  country's  history 
more  than  most  living  men  ;  and  in  the  pages  before  us  he  has  won 
new  titles  to  our  esteem  and  gratitude." 

In  the  Dublin  Review  for  March  1848,  the  History  of  the  Penal 
Laws  was  exhaustively  noticed.  "  Taken  as  a  whole,"  concludes 
the  reviewer,  "  we  think  this  volume  merits  a  place  in  the  library 
of  every  Catholic  ;  and  we  wish  we  could  believe  that  it  was  uni- 
versally perused  by  those  who  differ  from  us  in  creed.  In  fine,  it 
is  not  possible  to  read  this  book  without  edification,  and  without 
feehng  alike  our  faith  strengthened  and  our  hope  animated." 

Forty  years  later  this  volume  and  the  writer  were  referred  to  in 
an  address  by  the  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  reported  in  the  daily 
papers  of  January  21st,  1889,  in  which  his  Grace,  speaking  of  the 
defects  in  the  Euiancipation  Act  of  1829,  said — "  You  will  see  an 
excellent  account  of  it  in  an  interesting  work  written  by  a  good 
fellow-countryman  of  ours — a  good  Irishman,  who  devoted  much  of 
his  time  to  the  praiseworthy  work  of  investigating  the  recent 
history  of  his  country." 


176  MEMOIRS 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

GORE    HOUSE    AND    ITS    REMINISCENCES.—- THE    STORY    OF     LADY 
BLESSINGTON. 

In  August  1842,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Madden,  with  their  son  visited 
Paris,  where  they  remained  for  four  months^  whence  they  pro- 
ceeded to  London,  and  on  returning  from  his  West  African  mis- 
sion, resided  at  43  Sloane-square,  Chelsea.  Whilst  here  he  once  more 
became  a  frequent  guest  of  his  old  friend  Lady  Blessington  at  Gore 
House,  then  famous  as  the  rendezvous  of  literary  men  and  celebrities 
of  every  description.  The  hostess  of  that  hospitable  mansion,  and  the 
brilliant  circle  by  which  she  was  there  surrounded,  may  be  here 
briefly  noticed. 

Lady  Blessington's  father,  Mr.  Power  of  Waterford,  and  after- 
wards a  resident  of  Clonniel,  was  not  a  very  favourable  specimen  of 
the  Irish  squires  of  his  day,  by  whose  almost  inconceivable  improvi- 
dence and  folly  were  sown,  nearly  a  century  ago,  the  prolific  seeds 
of  much  of  the  subsequent  troubles  of  their  country.  He  is  described 
as  having  been  handsome,  reckless,  illiterate  and  pretentious, 
fond  of  lield  sports,  and  garrison  society — dissipated  abroad  and 
brutal  at  home.  In  '98  he  was  a  magistrate  hunting  rebels, 
although  a  Roman  Catholic  himself,  and  terminated  this  pastime 
by  shooting  one  of  these  supposed  rebels  rather  too  hastily  even 
for  that  time,  which  led  to  his  being  tried  for  murder,  but  acquitted. 
Lady  Blessington's  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Sheehy,  was 
connected  by  descent  with  the  Thomond,  Ormonde,  and  Desmond 
families,  although  she  had  some  rebel  blood  too,  her  father,  Edmond 
Sheehy,  having  been  executed  for  rebellion  in  1766,  and  a  cousin. 
Father  Nicholjis  Sheehy,  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered  at  Clonmel  for 
a  like  political  offence.  Of  Mrs.  Power  herself  nothing  particular  is  re- 
corded beyond  the  fact  that  she  was  the  mother  of  three  daughters, 
all  of  whom,  though  thus  born  of  middle  class  parentage  in  the 
little  village  of  Knockbritty,  were  each  destined  by  their  beauty 
to  win  and  wear  a  coronet :  viz.,  Ellen,  afterwards  Viscountess 
Canterbury,  Mary  Anne,  afterwards  Countess  de  St.  Marsault,  and 
Marguerite,  our  present  heroine,  afterwards  Countess  of  Blessington. 

It  would  need  volumes  to  narrate  fully  the  circumstances 
connected  with  that  metamorphoses,  and  with  the  history  of  the 
beautiful,  gifted,  and  ill-directed  lady  whose  first  appearance  on 
the  stage  of  existence  as  the  neglected  daughter  of  the  obscure 
Tipperary  squire  has  just  been  noticed,  and  who  at  an  early  age  was 
driven  from  her  paternal  house  into  another  equally  unhappy  home, 


DJR.    R,    R.    MADDEN.  177 


by  an  uncongenial  and  enforced  marriage  with  Oaptain  Farmer.  Not 
long  after  his  death  she  next  appears  before  us  as  the  Countess  of  Bles- 
eifigton — the  acknowledged  queen  of  society  in  the  capitals  of  Italy  and 
>  ranee,  as  well  in  London — and  ultimately  over  the  closing  scene  of 
her  life  in  impoverished  exile  the  curtain  falls.  Those  who  care  here  to 
follow  the  course  of  this  almost  forgotten  and  yet  interesting  melo- 
drama, will  find  all  its  varied  scenes  and  the  personal  history  of  the 
various  actors  therein  fully  pourtray  ed  in  the  three  volumes  of  Dr.  R.  R. 
Madden's  ^'Life  and  Correspondence  of  Lady  Blcasiiigton."  We  must 
here,  however,  confine  ourselves  to  the  period  during  which  from  the 
date  of  her  marriage,  in  her  twenty-eight  year,  with  Lord  Blessington, 
her  lengthened  reign  as  a  ruler  of  social,  literary,  and  fashionable  life 
in  London  extended,  and  within  which  the  present  interest  of  her 
life  is  centre^.  At  this  epoch  she  is  thus  described  by  her 
biographer  : — 

"  The  perfection  of  matured  beauty,  her  form  was  exquisitely 
moulded,  her  movements  graceful  and  natural  at  all  times.  The 
peculiar  character  of  her  beauty  consisted  in  the  correspondence  of 
every  feature  with  the  motion  of  her  mind.  The  instant  a  joyous 
thought  took  possession  of  her  fancy  you  read  it  in  her  sparkling 
eye,  her  smiling  lips  ;  you  heard  it  in  her  ringing  laugh,  clear  and 
sweet  as  childhood's  merriest  tones.  There  was  a  glowing  sun- 
shine of  good  humour  and  good  nature  seldom  surpassed  in  the 
genial  wit  of  this  lovely  woman.  Her  voice  was  sweetly  modula- 
ted and  clear  ;  all  her  beauty,  without  the  witchery  of  its  silvery 
tones,  would  have  been  only  a  secondary  charm."  Her  corres- 
pondence bears  witness  of  these  graces,  and  it  is  impossible  to  doubt 
the  many  fascinations  of  Lady  Blessington,  and  especially  those  of 
her  gentle  kindness.  Her  hand  had  l)een  modelled  in  marble,  and 
Prince  Swartzenberg  has  left  on  record  an  enthusiastic  description 
of  its  symmetry  ;  whilst  in  another  of  the  letters  preserved  in  Dr. 
Madden's  volumes  Tom  Moore  reminds  her  of  the  time  he  beheld — 
"  two  dazzling  faces  (those  of  the  sisters  Marguerite  and  Ellen) 
popped  out  of  a  window  in  Sackville-street." 

Immediately  after  their  marriage,  Lord  Blessington's  splendid  town 
mansion  became,  as  we  have  already  said,  a  rendezvous  of  the  lions 
of  society.  Two  royal  dukes  condescended  to  pay  homage  at  the 
new  shrine  of  Irish  beauty.  Canning  and  Castlereagh ;  Lords 
Palmerston  and  Russell ;  Lyiidhurst  and  Brougliam  and  Erskine ; 
Kemble  and  the  elder  Mathews ;  Parr  and  Sidney  Smith ;  Rogers  and 
Moore,  were  amongst  her  votaries.  To  each  and  all  who  ap- 
proached her  she  showed  some  special  and  graceful  kindness,  and 
that  not  only  to  the  prosperous  and  successful,  but  more  especially 
to  the  struggling  eons  of  genius — the  countless  young  writers  and 
artists,  to  whom   she  was  always  ready  to  lend   a  helping  hand 


178  MEMOIRS 


when  that  was  most  needed.  This  quick  sympathy  with  others 
was  perhaps  the  secret  of  her  powers  of  attraction,  and  for  this 
winning  grace  that  made  her  presence,  her  letters,  her  kind  words 
and  smiles,  synonymous  with  happiness,  may  many  errors  he 
forgiven. 

"  It  has  often  caused  me,"  says  Dr.  Madden,  in  a  fragment  found 
amongst  his  paj^ers,  *'  deep  concern  to  consider  how  calamitous 
it  was  to  Lady  Blessington  to  have  been  deprived  of  the  influences 
and  example  of  a  good  mother,  religious,  moral,  and  well-minded, 
at  a  very  early  age ;  and  to  have  had  continually  in  close  proximity, 
from  childhood  to  womanhood,  the  disorderly  life  and  evil  example 
of  a  father  whose  whole  career  was  that  of  an  unprincipled  and 
reckless  man.  In  the  heart  and  miud  of  Margaret  Power  there  were 
many  elements  of  goodness,  a  fine  soil  that  wanted  nothing  but  good 
parental  care  and  culture  to  produce  fruit  and  flowers  of  no  ordinary 
excellence.  Of  the  want  of  such  care  and  culture  some  proof  may  be 
discovered  in  a  single  passage  of  the  career  of  her  unworthy  father. 
I  find  a  memorandum  of  mine  of  a  communication  with  Lady 
Blessington  respecting  the  latter  days  of  her  father,  Edmond  Power, 
Esq.,  of  Knockbritty,  Co.  Tipperary,  and  the  difficulties  experienced 
by  her  in  dealing  with  them.  In  1836  she  said  he  was  residing  at 
No.  18,  Charlemont-street,  Dublin,  and  was  harassed  by  the  impor- 
tunities of  a  person  who  tormented  him  with  demands  of  a  pecu- 
niary kind,  which  he  constantly  refused  to  comply  with,  averring 
that  this  person  had  no  legal  claims  on  him,  as  the  marriage  in 
virtue  of  which  she  made  them  was  illegal.  In  the  course  of  a 
long  life  and  a  large  experience  in  all  grades  of  society,  and  in 
various  countries,  I  have  often  had  cause  to  think  the  greatest  of 
aU  blessings  is  to  have  been  born  and  bred  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith,  and  next  to  that,  is  the  blessing  of  having  had  the  early  care 
and  guidance  of  virtuous,  religious  parents,  and  more  especially  of 
a  tender,  loving,  right-minded,  pious  mother." 

Amongst  the  distinguished  foreigners  attracted  to  Lady  Blessing- 
ton's  house  about  three  years  after  her  marriage  were  the 
Due  de  Grammont,  and  his  brother-in  law,  the  young  Count 
d'Orsay.  The  latter,  who  had  recently  resigned  his  commission 
in  a  French  cavalry  regiment  with  a  reputation  as  a  sabreur,  ac- 
quired in  various  duellos,  was  then  probably  not  only  the  hand- 
somest man  in  Europe  but  also  a  person  of  varied  talents  and 
artistic  abilities.  He  soon  became  an  intimate  friend  of  Lord  and 
Lady  Blessington,  with  whose  family  he  remained  domiciled  during 
their  long  residence  in  Italy.  Subsequently,  by  an  ill-assorted  and 
unhappy  marriage,  he  became  the  husband  of  Lady  Harriet 
Gardiner,  a  daughter  of  Lord  Blessington  by  his  first  wife,  and 
his  career  was  thenceforward  inseparably  connected  with  Lady 
Blessiiigton's  after  life.      At  the  outset  of   their  Itahan   tour  iu 


DS.    E.    R.    MADDEN.  179 


1828,  at  Genoa  the  Blessiugton  party  met  Lord  Byroii,  who 
in  a  letter  to  Tom  Moore  described  Lady  Blesshigton  as  — 
"  liighly  Hterary,  very  pretty,  even  in  a  morning — a  species 
of  beauty  on  which  the  sun  of  Italy  does  not  shine  so  frequently 
as  the  chandelier."  We  are  told  that  she  was  ''  disappointed " 
in  Byron — who,  as  Dr.  Madden  states — *'  suffered  Lady  Bles- 
siugton to  lecture  him  in  prose,  and  what  was  worse,  in  verse," 
especially  on  the  publicity  he  gave  to  his  domestic  unhappiness, 
when  as  was  said  "  Byron  wept  for  the  press,  and  wiped  his  eyes 
with  the  pubhc,"  and  his  Lordship  in  return  wrote  her  some  com- 
mon-place complimentary  lines.  They  there  parted  with  much 
mutual  regret ;  the  Blessingtons  for  the  gaieties  of  Naples  and 
Rome, — Byron  for  glory  and  a  grave  in  Greece. 

After  five  years  residence  in  Italy,  the  year  1829  was  passed  in 
Paris,  where  they  established  themselves  in  the  splendid  Hotel  Ney. 
There,  on  Lord  Blessington's  death,  his  widow's  rental  was  suddenly 
reduced  from  thirty  thousand  to  two  thousand  a  year,  consequent  on 
which  she  returned  to  London,  and  though  with  an  income  then 
largely  dependent  on  her  hterary  labours,  speedily  resumed  her  leading 
social  position  in  the  great  city.  At  that  period  the  upper  coteries 
of  London  were  mainly  guided  by  the  genius  of  the  gentler  sex. 
Besides  Lady  Blessington,  whose  brilhant  salons — first  in  Sea- 
more  Place,  Mayfair,  and  afterwards  at  Gore  House,  Kensington, 
formerly  the  residence  of  Mr.  Wilberforce* — were  for  nearly  twenty 
years  the  centre  of  all  that  was  gay,  witty  and  learned  throughout 
the  kingdom  ;  there  were  two  other  regnant  queens  of  fashion  and 
arbitresses  of  taste,  viz.,  the  Countess  of  Charleville,  and  Lady 
Holland.  Under  the  presidency  of  these  gifted  ladies,  the  town 
mansions  of  their  lords  were  long  famous  for  their  hospitable  re- 
ception of  budding  talent,  and  for  those  pleasant  reunions  of 
political,  literary,  and  artistic  notabihties.  It  was  Lady  Holland 
and  Lady  Blessington  who  most  keenly,  and  for  the  greatest  length 
of  time,  disputed  for  victory  in  this  noble  race,  and  to  which  of 
their  shades  the  palm  ought  to  be  given  by  posterity  it  would  be 
hard  to  say.  It  must  be  confessed  the  latter  had  by  far  the  hard- 
est task — to  work  one  part  of  the  day  in  spinnhig  some  novel  out 
of  her  tortured  brain  ;  and  the  other  as  a  smiUng  hostess,  exert- 
ing herself  more  successfully  to  charm  her  multitudinous  guests. 

Each  evening,  from  ten  to  half-past  twelve  o'clock,  Gore  House 
was  thrown  open  to  visitors,  like  a  temple  of  Minerva,  to  which 
all  literary  votaries  went  up  nightly  to  worsliip.  Stars  there 
were  plenty ;  from  the  great  Welhngton  down  to  Alaric  Watts,  one 
of  the  smallest  of  the  Annuahsts  ;  a  perfect  via  lactea  of  celebri- 


YiClo  Apiendix. 

13 


180  MEMOIRS 


ties  great  and  small  swept  through  the  salons  where,  as  in  her  for- 
mer residence,  might  be  seen  whosoever  were  notable  for  social 
or  political  position,  eccentricity,  fashion  or  genius  ;  in  art,  science 
or  literature.  In  those  cosmopolitan  assemblages,  the  passport  to 
which  was  the  '  guinea  stamp  '  of  celebrity  of  any  kind,  were  ad- 
mitted all  classes  and  conditions  of  men  :  politicians  of  ever}'-  shade 
of  opinion,  chartists  and  tories,  repealers  and  their  foes ;  divines 
and  jesters  ;  historians  and  novelists  ;  poets  and  scientists  ;  Bishops 
and  actors;  men  of  pleasure  and  of  learning  ;  Midas  and  Diogenes. 
There  **  My  Lord  Tom  Noddy  and  Sir  CarnebyJenks  of  the  Blues" 
stood  on  terms  of  temporary  equality  with  toiling  men  of  letters, 
whose  only  rent-roll  was  derived  from  those  "  airy  nothings  "  to  which 
their  genius  gave  "  a  local  habitation  and  a  name,"  probably  more 
enduring  than  any  left  by  the  leaders  of  fashion  or  great  statesmen 
with  whom  they  comingled  in  Lady  Blessington's  salons.  Amongst 
the  guests  thus  gathered  in  Gore  House  were  many  whose  names 
are  still  '  familiar  as  household  words.'  There  might  be  seen  the 
conservative  Bulwer  Lytton  in  friendly  chat  with  the  Right  Hon. 
*  Tom '  Dunacombe,  who,  being  ultra  Liberal,  chartist,  and  trade- 
unionist,  combined  in  his  own  person  the  not  very  harmonious  char- 
acter of  a  tribune  of  the  people  and  a  man  of  pleasure  and  fashion. 
Or  Mr.  Benjamin  Disraeli,  afterwards  the  tory  Earl  of  Beaconsfield, 
then  a  red-hot  radical,  eager  to  get  into  Parliament,  and  electrify- 
ing society  by  works  of  fiction,  in  which  the  celebrities  of  the  day 
were  sketched  and  satirized.  Thither  also  came  the  brothers  James 
and  Horace  Smith,  of  Bejected  Addresses  fame ;  John  Gait, 
editor  of  The  Courier ;  Thomos  Hood  and  Charles  Lamb,  first  of 
English  humourists ;  Charles  Mathews,  who  was  always  At  Home 
in  Gore  House  ;  John  Hamilton  Reynolds,  Hood's  brother-in-law, 
editor  of  The  Keepsake,  "  a  pleasant  writer  and  poet,  who  ostensibly 
followed  the  profession  of  the  law ;  "  Samuel  Lover,  whose  unriv- 
alled Legends  and  Stories  and  popular  Irish  songs,  particularly 
Rory  O'More  and  The  Angel's  Whisper,  together  with  his 
admirable  miniature  of  Lord  Brougham,  gained  him  admission  to 
the  reunions  as  a  story-teller  and  lyrist  of  the  first  order,  as  weU  as 
an  artist;  Washington  Irving  and  N.  P.  Willis,  Walter  Savage  Lan- 
der, Thomas  Pringle,  editor  of  the  Friendship's  Offering,  and  a 
sweet  poet ;  B.  Waller  Proctor  alias  "  Barry  Cornwall,"  some  of 
whose  English  songs.  King  Death  for  instance,  are  among  the 
finest  lyrics  in  the  English  language;  Charles  Dickens,  Thackeray, 
W.  Harrison  Ainsworth,  Captain  Marryat ;  Hay  don,  the  painter  ; 
Sir  Charles  Eastlake  ;  Sir  Edwin  Landseer  and  Daniel  Maclise  ; 
George  Lane ;  Thomas  Moore ;  Campbell,  and  Beattie,  Dr. 
Parr  ;  the  Marquis  of  Wellesley  ;  Lord  Abinger  ;  Lord  John  (after- 
wards Earl)  Russell ;  the  Marquis  of  Normnnby,  Lord  Clyde,  Lord 
Glenelg,  Brougham  andErskine;  Charles  Knight ;  Thomas  Babing- 


DR.    B.    B.    MADDEN.  '"l 


tonMaoaulav  Sir  Honvy  Bisbop;  Sheridan  Knowles;  B  Simmons, 
contributo  0  many  beautiful  lines  to  Lady  Blossmgton's  ann.mls  : 
Mrop  MaclnvoAh  Praed;  S«-geant  T^Jfo;"-d.  the  eccenU-  Ea  1 
of  Dudley;  Bernal  Osborne ;  Mouckton  Mills ;  Baillie  Oocluane, 
aftenvarc?B  -aised  to  tbe  peerage,  by  «-hose  death  in  Mareb  1800, 
moUbly  be  n.  the  last  survivo^f  Lady  Blessingtons  liter 

as  now  mssed  away  ;  the  Duke  dc  Gramniont;  George  Alexander 
MaefaiTen    Fanny  Kemble,Maereadj,  and  Edmund  Kean;  Jekyll 
t1  r in  er     the  \vittY  Dr.  Quin,  and  a  whole  host  besides,  amongst 
whom  Prince  Lou"-  Napoleon,'  fresh  from  the  Egliuton  Tourna- 
ment  was  not  the  least  conspicuous  guest.  „     ,     .i    t     i 

\B  n  y  observed,  from  the  time  of  her  husband's  death  Lady 
Blessin.^ton  found  hei^self  largely  dependant  on  hterary  work  lor 
fhe  means  of  maintaining  her  e..travagantly  splendid  estabhshme 
Her  fiisr venture  in  this  way,  namely,  her  "  Conversatmns  with 
lod    Byron,"    which   appeared   in  the  .Y..;-   Monthl,,  Mayazrne 
proved  s^oac'ceptablo  that  thenceforward  volume  after  volume  o 
Fhreetmed  novels,  with  innnmerablo  contributions  to  annuals  and 
ourLTspouml  from  her  flowing  pen.     By  these  writings  she  made 
In  averaCaddition  of  nearly  two  thousand  a  year  to  her  income^ 
This  she  was  enabled  to  do  for  a  period  of  some  twen  y  .Tears,  dung 
wb   h  she  worked  'like  a  galley  slave,'  not  only  for  tersdf  but  also 
for  the  support  of  many  of  tbe  impoverished  members  of  hei  fathers 
lone.  Tin,  m-arv  family,  of  whose  needs  she  was  never  unmindful    To 
UustS  1  e    capncii;  for  such  work  it  may  be  mentioned  that  one 
0    her  novels,  "The"  Repealer,"  was  written  mave  weeks,     bl  e 
complnine™ii  one  of  her  letters  at  that  time-"  I  am  hterally  worn 
out    I  look  for  release  from  my  toils  more  than  a  fave  ever  d  d 

sii's  ti^:::^  -".HuS  fc:,K'E 

an  enf^agement,  you  \mU  unaerbicum  «iij  ,  i  •  n  n  t  ].r,,ro 
s  oiyyou  sent  me.  and  which  I  am  persuaded  is  like  all  I  have 
seeiffrom  your  pen-graphic  and  full  of    alent. 

It  would  be  useless  here  to  recapitulate  tbe  titles  ol  all 
the  olumes  thus  forced  from  her  overworked  brain  M  s^ 
of  these  were  of  no  great  merit,  and  even  the  best  ot  them 
ha  e  long  ince  been  relegated  to  the  paper  miU  or  to  the 
trunk-2er.  Notwithstandh.g  all  this  toil,  however,  her  expen- 
dHu  e  was  for  many  years  greatly  in  excess  of  her  income ;  and  the 
sTggle  to  meet  this  deficit  by  increased  hterary  work  whilst  at 
the  same  time  to  the  outer  world  she  shone  nightly  as  the  genial 
hostesTof  tTe  brilUant  assemblages  of  Gore  House,  ultimately 
proved  dfsastrous.     Ou  this  .subject  Dr.  Madden  has  remarked- 


182  MEMOIRS 


*'  Little  was  she  aware  of  the  nature  of  literary  pursuits  or  the 
precariousness  of  their  remuneration  if  she  imagined  that  secure 
and  permanent  emolument  would  result  from  such  resources.  A 
lady  of  quality  who  sits  down  in  fashionable  life  to  get  a  livelihood 
by  literature,  had  better  build  any  other  description  of  castles  in  the 
air,  however  ethereal  the  order  of  architecture  may  be."  A  large 
share  of  Lady  Blessington's  writings  were  contributed  to  the  long 
forgotten  Annuals  which  were  then  so  popular.  In  these  Keejj- 
sakes  ;  Books  of  Beauty  ;  Literary  Souveyiirs ;  Foryet-Me-Not's ;  and 
other  similar  works  of  that  period  may  be  found,  together  with 
much  literary  trash,  many  tales  and  sketches  by  the  best  writers 
of  the  time,  and  some  poetic  "gems  of  purest  ray  serene" 
well  worthy  of  disinterment.  Of  two  of  these  Annuals  Lady  Bless- 
ington  was  for  some  years  editor,  viz.,  Heath's  Book  of  Beauty  and 
the  Keepsake ;  and  afterwards  of  another  called  the  Gems  of  Beauty. 
This  occupation,  says  Dr.  Madden,  brought  her  into  contact  with 
almost  every  literary  man  of  eminence  in  the  kingdom,  or  who 
visited  England.  But  it  also  involved  an  enormous  expenditure, 
far  beyond  any  amount  of  remuneration  thus  derived.  It  made  a 
necessity  for  entertaining  continually  persons  to  whom  she  looked 
for  contributions,  or  from  whom  she  had  received  assistance.  It  in- 
volved her,  moreover,  in  all  the  drudgery  of  authorship,  in  all  the 
turmoil  of  contention  with  publishers,  communication  with  artists, 
and  never  ending  correspondence  with  contributors.  In  a  word,  it 
made  her  life  miserable. 

Meanwhile,  Lord  Blessington's  celebrated  son-in-law,  Count 
d'Orsay,  led  the  fashion  in  his  own  way,  as  much  as  Lady  Bless- 
ington  did  in  hers,  and  for  a  period  of  nearly  twenty  years  ruled 
quite  as  despotically  as  ever  Beau  Nash  or  Brummel  did,  in 
art,  dress,  manners,  and  conversation,  in  the  great  world  of  London. 
Thepotatoe  blight  in  Ireland, in  1846  and  1847,  now, however,  came 
like  a  thunder  blast  on  the  glories  of  Gore  House.  That  part  of  the 
Countess's  income  which  had  been  derived  from  the  estates  of  her 
deceased  husband  was  then  suddenly  cut  off.  As  soon  as  the  sus- 
picion of  inability  to  meet  demands  got  abroad,  demands  poured  in. 
Day  by  day  payment  was  evaded.  Then  executions  were  threatened. 
Bailiffs  stood  watching  at  the  door,  while  the  upper -ten- thousand 
were  diverting  themselves  within,  careless  of  the  secret  anxieties 
that  were  fast  corroding  their  smiling  hostess'  heart.  For  two  years 
Gore  House  was  a  sort  of  Sebastopol,  wherein  the  Countess  was  a 
close  prisoner.  At  length  a  bailiff,  more  crafty  than  his  brethren, 
took  the  fortress  by  stratagem.  His  appearance  had  the  effect  of 
the  direst  simoom  in  a  garden  of  roses.  Harlequin  with  his  wand 
could  not  have  effected  a  more  sudden  transformation. 

Count  d'Orsay  fled  for  refuge  to  France,  leaving  debts  behind  him 
to  the  amount  of  a  hundred  thousand  pounds.     A  fortnight  after- 


T>T?.    R.    R.    MADDRN.  l^.*! 


wards,  Lady  Blessington,  with  her  nieces,  also  quitted  London  for 
ever,  leaving  her  entire  property  at  the  mercy  of  her  creditors. 
Then  commenced  a  nine  days'  sale  at  Gore  Plouse,  the  long- 
cherished  treasures  of  which  were  ruthlessly  dispersed  among 
brokers  and  dealers.  Guest  after  guest  came  to  stare  with  the 
crowd  and  scan  the  rooms  where  but  lately  he  was  fain  to  bring  the 
insense  of  his  adulation  ;  and  it  is  thus  that  a  faithful  servant, 
writing  to  the  Countess,  sums  up  the  tale  and  pays  an  unconscious 
tribute  to  a  great  writer  often  misrepresented  as  a  mere  satirist : 
— **  Mr.  Thackeray  came  also,  and  had  tears  in  his  eyes  when 
he  went  away.  He  is  perhaps  the  only  person  whom  I  have  seen 
really  affected  at  your  departure."  Every  article  in  the  house,  in- 
cluding the  library  of  five  thousand  volumes,  was  sold  off  without 
reserve.  By  her  Ladyship's  express  command,  the  creditors  got  all 
she  had,  except  her  own  picture  by  Chalon.  The  sale  realized 
above  £13,000,  out  of  which  eleven  pounds  balance,  after  paying 
the  debts,  was  handed  over  to  Lady  Blessington.  Twenty  thou- 
sand persons  visited  the  house  previous  to  the  auction,  and  the  sale 
itself  Dr.  Madden  describes  as  follows  : — "  There  was  a  large  assem- 
blage of  people  of  rank.  Every  room  was  thronged  ;  the  well- 
known  library  salon,  in  which  the  conversaziones  took  place,  was 
crowded,  but  not  with  guests.  The  arm-chair,  in  which  the  lady 
of  the  house  was  wont  to  sit,  was  occupied  by  a  stout,  coarse  gentle- 
man of  the  Jewish  persuasion,  busily  engaged  in  examining  a 
marble  hand  modelled  from  that  of  the  absent  mistress  of  the  es- 
tablishment. People,  as  they  passed  through  the  rooms,  poked  the 
furniture,  pulled  about  the  precious  objects  of  art  and  ornaments  of 
various  kinds  that  lay  about,  whilst  others  made  jests  and  ribald 
jokeg  on  the  scene  they  witnessed.  In  another  apartment,  where 
the  pictures  were  being  sold,  portraits  by  Lawrence,  sketches  by 
Landseer  and  Maclise,  innumerable  likenesses  of  Lady  Blessington, 
by  various  artists ;  several  of  the  Count  d'Orsay  ;  his  own  col- 
lections of  portraits  of  the  frequenters  of  Gore  House,  in  quick 
succession  were  all  brought  to  the  hammer.  It  was  the  most  sig- 
nal ruin  of  a  person  of  high  rank  I  had  ever  witnessed." 

In  April  1849  Lady  Blessington  quitted  London,  and  at 
sixty  years  of  age  found  herself  a  fugitive  in  Paris — youth, 
beauty,  wealth,  influence,  illusion,  all  gone.  Nothing  remained  to 
her  but  her  energetic  wiU.  A  biography  of  remarkable  women  was 
to  issue  from  her  pen,  and  she  was  to  spare  no  pains  in  reading  up 
for  it.  She  took  a  new  residence,  and  still  found  the  means  of 
furnishing  it  with  that  elegance  and  taste  which  she  clung  to  as 
long  as  she  lived.  To  all  outward  appearance  the  buoyant  spirit  of 
her  youth  had  come  back,  to  enable  her  to  brave  the  desolation  of 
her  age.  Count  d'Orsay,  she  hoped,  would  obtain  some  lucrative 
post  under  Louis  Napoleon,  with  whom  he  had  been  on  terms  of 


184  MEMOIRS 


sncli  close  intimacy  when  participating  of  her  hospitality  at  Gore 
House.  But  princes,  when  they  arrive  at  absolute  power,  are  in  the 
habit  of  forgetting  the  promises  they  may  have  made  to  their  friends 
when  their  star  was  not  yet  in  the  ascendant. 

Thus  this  broken  reed  failed,  and  Lady  Blessingtou  sank  under  it. 
Pomp  and  pleasure,  praise  and  fame,  and  all  the  lights  of  life  were 
going  out — the  truth  could  not  be  hid.  On  the  3rd  of  June,  just 
seven  weeks  after  her  flight  from  London,  she  retired  to  rest  for  the 
first  time  in  her  new  residence.  Her  health  and  spirits  that  day 
had  been  apparently  better  than  usual ;  but  she  was  struck  during 
the  night  by  apoplexy,  and  died  without  much  suffering  just 
before  daybreak.  Slie  was  buried  at  St.  Germain,  where  her  mauso- 
leum was  designed  by  Count  d'Orsay,  her  epitaph  written  by 
Barry  Cornwall  and  Walter  Savage  Landor ;  whilst  Irish  ivy, 
brought  from  her  native  village,  was  planted  round  her  grave. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

COUNT    d'oKSAY. 

A  FEW  words  concerning  one  whose  career  was  most  closely  asso- 
ciated with  that  of  Lady  Blessington,  and  who  was  at  one  time  no 
less  prominent  in  society  than  in  art,  may  be  here  appended  to  the 
foregoing  brief  sketch  of  her  life — 

Alfred  Count  d'Orsay  was  born  at  Paris  in  1801.  His  father, 
General  d'Orsay,  who  had  served  with  distinction  under  Napoleon, 
was  descended  from  an  ancient  family,  and,  like  his  afterwards 
more  celebrated  son,  was  a  man  of  striking  physique.  We  are  told 
in  reference  to  this  that  the  Emperor  remarked  d'Orsay  would 
make  an  admirable,  model  for  a  Jupiter — so  noble  and  commanding 
was  his  presence.  His  mother  was  a  daughter  of  the  King  of 
Wurtemburg,  by  a  marriage  which  though  good  in  religion  was 
not  so  in  law,  and  in  latter  life  was  recognized  as  a  brilliant  wit 
and  leader  of  Parisian  society.  Their  son  Alfred  well  exemplified 
the  customary  transmission  of  the  mental  attributes  of  the  mother 
with  the  physical  ones  of  the  sire  in  his  person  and  qualities.  At 
an  early  age  d'Orsay  entered  the  French  cavalry,  and  after  the 
Bourbon  restoration,  became  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Guard  de  Corj^s. 
Whilst  in  the  army  he  was  no  less  distinguished  for  courage  and 
extraordinary  physical  strength  than  by  the  exceptional  interest  he 
manifested  in  the  welfare  of  the  men  under  his  command,  whose 
comforts  he  used  to  supply  at  his  own  cost.  As  a  little  illustration 
of  his  kindliness  of  character,  we  ar£  told  that  at  all  the  various 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  185 


balls  to  which  tlie  officers  of  his  regiment  were  invited,  it  was  noted 
that  he  alone  paid  attention,  not  to  the  prettiest,  but  the  plainest 
girls  present,  or  to  those  who  seemed  most  neglected  by  others. 
The  great  charm  of  all  bis  acts  of  this  kind  was  their  spontaneity 
and  his  own  unconsciousness  of  them. 

In  1822,  with  his  sister  and  her  husband,  then  the  Duo  de  Guiche, 
d'Orsay  first  visited  England,  and  by  this  iourney,  which  resulted 
in  his  marriage  with  Lady  Harriet  Gardiner,  Lord  Blessington's 
youngest  daughter,  the  after  course  of  his  life  was  altered  and  de- 
termined. 7'hus,  in  his  twenty- seventh  year  d'Orsay,  then  resid- 
ing with  the  Blessington's  at  Na|Dles,  made  the  fatal  mistake 
of  being  induced,  as  he  certainly  was  by  the  young  lady's 
father,  to  enter  into  a  marriage  with  a  richly  endowed  and 
beautiful  girl,  for  whom  he  seems  to  have  entertained  no  senti- 
ment of  love  or  regard.  In  reference  to  this  ill-advised  union 
and  its  result.  Dr.  Madden  in  his  memoir  of  d'Orsay  aptly  cites 
Montesquieu's  words  : — "  Religion  is  the  only  test  we  have  for  the 
probity  or  purity  of  mankind.  And  the  longer  our  experience 
of  life,  the  more  certain  becomes  the  conviction  that  elsewhere 
there  exists  no  security  for  man's  uprightness  or  woman's  virtue, 
and  that  for  either  there  is  a  point  of  temptation  at  whicli  mere 
human  honour,  however  long  resisting,  must  stagger  and  fail  in  the 
end,  unless  it  be  founded  in  reliance  on  divine  grace  and  help." 
Passing  by  the  further  history  of  this  unfortunate  alliance,  w^e  find 
from  that  time  d'Orsay  became  permanently  domiciled  as  a  member 
of  the  Blessington  family,  and  soon  obtained  and  long  maintained 
an  unrivalled  position  in  the  world  of  fasliion,  at  first  in  Paris,  and 
eventually  in  London.  Of  this  portion  of  his  life,  Dr.  Madden  has 
observed  :  "It  is  very  evident  the  foreigner  could  be  no  ordinary 
person  who  figured  in  the  society  of  the  most  eminent  men  of  Eng- 
land for  nearly  twenty  years,  and  who  in  circles  where  genius  as 
well  as  haut  ton  had  its  throne,  claimed  kindred  there  and  had 
his  claim  allowed."  D'Orsay's  celebrity  was  undisputed  as  a  man 
of  fashion  :  a  noble-looking,  English-mannered  gentleman,  though 
of  the  Erench  ville  cour ;  at  once  graceful,  distinguished  and  de- 
bonnair  ;  full  of  life,  wit,  and  humour.  He  was  surely  something 
more  than  a  mere  dandy,  *  a  combination  of  Adonis  and  Hercules,' 
who  was  at  the  same  time  an  artist  of  no  small  pretensions,  both  as 
a  painter  and  a  sculptor,  as  well  as  an  exquisite  of  the  first  water. 
A  keen  sportsman  ;  a  famous  swordsman  ;  an  admirable  rider,  fit  to 
'  witch  the  world  with  noble  horsemanship.'  At  one  period  agreat col- 
lector of  classical  rarities,  like  Horace  Walpole  ;  at  another  time  the 
zealous  partizan  of  a  great  political  conspirator,  and  promoter  of  his 
plans  to  effect  a  revolution.  Alfred  d'Orsay  figured  in  his  day  in  all 
these  characters.  Nevertbeless,  all  the  celebrity  which  his  true 
friends,  if  any  should  yet  survive,  might  desire  to  he  connected  with 


186  MEMOIRS 


his  name,  i  s  that  which  was  derived  from  the  exercise  of  his  fine  talents 
as  an  artist,  and  of  his  kind  heart,  which  was  ever  sensitive  and 
considerate  to  the  wants  and  troubles  of  others,  and  the  disinter- 
ested, possibly  lavish,  and  often  abused  generosity  of  his  nature. 
His  good  qualities  were  numerous  and  benefited  many.  His  errors 
and  improvidence  impoverished  only  himself.  In  the  hey-day  of  his 
youth,  however  far  he  may  have  been  led  astray,  as  undoubtedly 
he  was  too  readily  by  the  reckless  follies  of  that  society  of  which  he 
was  so  long  the  enfant  fjaf/%  in  his  heart,  to  the  latest  moment 
of  life  his  nature  was  noble  and  generous.  Being  himself  incap- 
al)le  of  guile,  he  was  unconscious  of  any  deception  on  the  part 
of  others. 

In  society  he  was  agreeable,  attentive,  kind,  and  considerate  to 
all.  No  one  was  too  humble,  too  retiring  or  too  unknown  to  be 
beneath  his  notice  or  beyond  the  reach  of  his  extraordinary  power 
of  finding  out  some  merit,  or  discovering  some  topic  of  interest  on 
which  he  might  get  into  friendly  conversation  with  him.  One  of 
the  best  proofs  of  his  power  of  thus  attracting  and  making  others 
happy  was  the  extreme  aflfection  and  confidence  he  invariably  in- 
spired in  children,  of  whom  he  was  very  fond.  Arrogance  and  af- 
tectation,  and  purse-proud  insolence  alone  found  him  haughty, 
severe,  and  satirical,  and  on  these  his  keen  wit  and  remarkable 
powers  of  raillery  were  not  unfrequently  exercised. 

Beyond  this,  too,  d'Orsay  was  a  gifted  artist,  a  series  of 
nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  portraits  of  the  most  eminent  fre- 
quenters of  Gore  House  having  been  painted  by  him,  litho- 
graphed by  Lane,  and  published  by  Caddel,  in  two  folio  volumes, 
price  thirty  guineas  in  boards.  His  statuettes  and  busts  called 
forth  unmeasured  praise  from  all  judges  at  that  time — from  the 
<3old,  severe  Wellington  as  well  as  the  spiritual  Lamartine.  Of 
these  busts,  two  small  specimens  in  the  editor's  possession,  namely, 
statuettes  of  Lady  Blessington  and  d'Orsny  himself,  are  possibly 
amongst  his  best  likenesses ;  albeit  neither  these  nor  a  portrait  of  Lady 
Blessington's  biographer,  by  another  artist,  now  in  the  collection 
of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy,  were  apparently  deemed  of  much  interest 
in  the  critical  judgment  of  the  director  of  the  Irish  National 
Portrait  Gallery.  Haydon,  the  painter,  thus  describes  the 
artist  Count  in  his  Diary  : — "  About  seven  o'clock  d'Orsay  called, 
whom  I  had  not  seen  for  a  long  time.  He  was  much  improved, 
and  looked  '  the  glass  of  fashion  and  the  mould  of  form ' —  really  an 
Adonis,  not  made  up  at  all.  He  made  some  capital  remarks,  all  of 
which  must  be  attended  to.  They  were  sound  impressions,  and 
grand.  He  bounded  into  his  cab  like  a  young  Apollo  with  a  fiery 
Pegasus.     I  looked  after  him.     I  like  to  see  such  specimens." 

JVIany  of  his  works  of  art,  such  as  his  portrait  of  Byron,  have 
been  engraved  and  are  well  known.     His  picture  of  Welhngton, 


DE.    E.    R.    MADDEN.  1^7 


who  had  SO  great  a  regard  for  him  that  it  was  sufficient  to  mentis^u 
d'Orsay's  name  to  ensure  his  attention,  was  the  last  for  which  the 
Duke  ever  sat.  At  its  completion,  his  Grace  shook  hands  warmly 
with  the  noble  artist,  exclaiming—"  At  last  I  have  been  painted  hke 
a  gentleman  ;  I'll  never  sit  to  anyone  else."  D'Orsay  was,  as  just 
mentioned  a  sculptor  as  well  as  a  painter  of  much  merit.  In  Pans  he 
executed  a  splendid  bust  of  Lamartine,  for  which  the  poet  wrote  some 
fine  lines;  one  ofEmile  Girardin  ;  one  of  Napoleon  Buonaparte  the 
son  of  Jerome;  as  weU  as  a  picture  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  of 
Lord  Brougham  and  innumerable  other  sketches,  medallions,  and 
statuettes,  including  an  admirable  model  for  a  statue  of  O  Gonneli 
in  which  he  succeeded  in  wonderfully  catching  the  ex]oression  of 
the  Liberator  as  he  appeared  when  addressmg  a  meeting.  In 
this,  the  massive  figure,  though  heavily  cloaked,  was  artistic- 
ally graceful  and  animated.  .       ,  .         ,         ■. 

in  his  days  of  afiluence  ard  influence,  durmg  his  early  residence 

at  Gore  House,  he  was  a  generous  benefactor,  more  especially  to 

those  of  his  own  nation  who  required  assistance,  to  whom,  from 

Louis  Napoleon   down    to  the    poorest    exile,    his    services    were 

rendered  with  a  frank  good-will  and  a  considerate  delicacy  and 

sympathy    for  misfortune   that  increased  the  value    of    his  gilts. 

But  for  d'Orsay's   countenance  and  help,   at  a  critical  period  in 

his  career  in  exile,  probably  the  future  Emperor  Louis  Napoleon 

would  never  have  reached  the  French  throne.  The  Prince  President  s 

coup  d'etat  in  1848  was,  however,  utterly  repugnant  to    d  Orsay  6 

hi^h  sense  of  honour  and  justice,  and  his  frank  disgust  thereat 

w^B  warmly  resented  by  the  successful  Imperial  adventurer   by 

whom  he  was  consequently  neglected.  Ultimately  however    when 

it  was  too  late,  and  d'Orsay  lay  on   the  point  of  death,  he  was 

nominated   to   the    office    of  Directeur   des    Beaux   Arts,   by   the 

new  Emperor.     On  his  death-bed  he  was  repeatedly  visited  by  the 

Archbishop  of  Paris,  and  received  all  the  consolations  of  the  taith 

in  which  he  had  been  born  and  reared  from  the  Cure  of  Cambourcy, 

to  whose  church  he  was  a  generous  benefactor,  and  wherein  may 

still  be  seen   many  pictures  which   he  painted,  as  well  as  his  own 

admirable  portraiture  of  the  Mater   Dolorosa,   the    engravmg   of 

which,  though   commonly  misdescribed  as  the  Magdalen,  is  well 

'""-Tvisited  my  dear  old  friend,"  says  Dr.  Madden,  -  a  few  weeks 
before  his  death,  and  found  him  evidently  sinking,  m  the  last  sta^  of 
disease  of  the  kidneys,  compHcatcd  with  spinal  complaint,  ihe 
wreck  only  of  the  beau  d'Orsay  was  there.  He  was  able  to  sit  up 
and  to  walk,  though  with  difficulty,  and  evidently  with  pam  about 
his  room,  which  was  at  once  his  studio,  reception-room  and  sleeping 
apartment.  He  burst  out  crying  when  I  entered  the  room,  and 
continued  for   a  length  of   time   eo  much  affected  that  he  could 


188  MEMOIRS 


hardly  spenk  to  ine.  Gradually  he  hecame  composed,  and  talked 
about  Lady  Blossiugton's  death,  but  all  the  time  with  tears  pouring 
down  his  pale  wan  face,  for  even  then  his  features  were  death- 
stricken.  He  said  with  marked  emphasis  :  "In  losing  her  I  lost 
everything  in  this  w^orld.  She  was  to  me  a  mother !  a  dear 
mother."  Again  referring  to  these  w^ords,  he  said  :  "  You  under- 
stand me  Madden."  I  understood  him  to  be  speaking  what  he 
felt,  and  there  was  nothing  in  his  accents  or  expressions  (for  his 
words  sounded  in  my  ears  like  those  of  a  dying  man)  which  led  me 
to  believe  he  was  seeking  to  deceive  me.  I  turned  his  attention  to 
the  subject  I  thought  most  important  to  him.  I  said,  among  the 
many  objects  which  caught  my  attention  in  the  room,  I  was  very 
glad  to  see  a  crucifix  placed  over  the  head  of  his  bed  ;  men  living 
in  the  world  as  he  had  done  were  so  much  in  the  habit  of  forget- 
ting all  early  rehgious  feehngs.  D'Orsay  seemed  hurt  at  the 
observation.  I  then  plainly  said  to  him  :  "  The  fact  is,  I  imagined, 
or  rather  I  supposed,  you  had  followed  Lady  Blessington's  example, 
if  not  in  giving  up  your  rehgion,  in  seeming  to  conform  to  another 
more  in  vogue  in  England."  D'Orsay  rose  up  with  considerable 
energy,  and  stood  erect  and  firm,  wnth  obvious  exertion,  for  a  few 
seconds,  looking  like  himself  again,  and  pointing  to  the  head  of  his 
bed,  he  said:  "Do  you  see  those  two  sw^ords  ?  "  pointing  to  two 
small  swords  (which  were  hung  under  the  crucifix  crosswise).  "  Do 
you  see  that  sword  to  the  right  ?  With  that  sword  I  fought  in 
defence  of  my  rehgion.  I  had  only  joined  my  regiment  a  few  day's, 
when  an  officer  at  the  mess-table  used  disgusting  and  impious  lan- 
guage in  speaking  of  the  Blessed  Virgin.  I  called  on  him  to 
desist ;  he  repeated  the  foul  language  ;  I  threw  a  plate  of  spinach 
across  the  table  in  his  face  ;  a  challenge  ensued  ;  we  fought  under 
the  moonlight  that  evening,  on  the  ram.parts  of  the  town,  and  I 
have  kept  that  sword  ever  since."  Whatever  we  may  think  of  the 
false  notions  of  honour,  or  the  erroneous  ones  of  religion  which 
may  have  prompted  the  encounter,  T  think  there  is  evidence  in  it 
of  early  impressions  of  a  religious  nature  having  been  made  on  the 
mind  of  this  singular  man,  and  of  some  remains  of  them  still  exist- 
ing at  the  period  above-mentioned,  however  strangely  presented." 

On  this  occasion  Count  d'Orsay  informed  Dr.  Madden  that  Lady 
Blessington  never  ceased,  in  her  heart,  to  be  a  Catholic,  although  she 
occasionally  attended  the  church  of  another  persuasion,  and  that 
while  she  was  in  Paris,  she  went  every  Sunday  to  the  Madeleine, 
in  company  with  some  members  of  his  family.  Count  d'Orsay 
survived  Lady  Blessington  a  little  more  than  two  years,  and  died 
in  his  fifty-seventh  year,  on  the  4th  of  August  1854.  The  monu- 
ment to  her  memory  had  been  hardly  finished  when  it  became  the 
resting-place  of  all  that  was  left  of  the  accomplished,  highly  gifted, 
generous-hearted  Alfred  d'Orsay. — Pulvia  et  umbra,  nomen,  nihil. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  189 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 


RESIDENCE        IN       PORTUGAL. 


From  tlie  circiunstanccs  rcLited  in  a  previous  cliaptei  connected 
with  the  publication  of  liis  Histort/  of  the  United  Irishmen,  linding 
himself  (under  I^ord  Stanley's  administration  of  the  Colonial  Office) 
deprived  of  his  just  claim  to  re-appointment  to  his  official  position 
in  connexion  with  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  Dr. 
Madden  again  reverted  to  his  early  pursuits  as  a  writer  for  the 
Press,  and  a  year  subsequently  became  Special  Correspondent  iu 
Portugal  for  the  Morning  Chronicle.  Accordingly,  on  the  2nd 
November  1843,  with  his  wife  and  child,  he  embarked  at 
Southampton  by  the  steamer  Montrose  for  Lisbon,  where,  or  at 
Cintra,  he  remained  for  nearly  three  years,  with  a  few  short 
intervals  of  absence  in  Spain,  I'rance,  and  England.  With 
reference  to  this  appointment  we  may  quote  a  letter  from  the 
Countess  of  Blessington  :  — 

"  Gore  House,  Oct.  19th,  1843. 

"  Those  who  imagine  that  you  will  descend  one  step  in  life  by 
accepting  the  occupation  you  are  about  to  fill  in  Portugal,  entertain 
a  very  different  opinion  from  mine.  Some  of  the  most  distinguished 
men  have  written  for  the  Press,  and  your  doing  so  will,  according 
to  my  notion,  give  you  a  new  claim  on  the  Anti-Slavery  party  you  have 
hitherto  served. 

"  I  am  not  sorry  that  you  will  be  remoxed  from  Ireland  at  pre- 
sent, when  atfairs  wear  an  aspect  that  must  grieve  and  irritate 
every  Irishman  with  noble  and  generous  feelings.  But  women 
have,  in  my  opinion,  no  business  with  politics,  and  I,  above  all 
women,  have  a  horror  of  mixing  myself  up  with  them.  I  must 
content  myself  in  wishing  well  to  my  poor  country,  which  no  one 
more  heartily  loves.  Wherever  you  go,  or  in  whatever  position, 
you  will  take  with  you  my  cordial  good  wishes  for  your  prosperity 
and  welfare,  and  for  that  of  your  family. 

"I  am  now  oppressed  by  writing  to  fulfil  an  engagement  I  en- 
tered into,  without  being  aware  of  the  excessive  fatigue  it  would 
entail  on  me  ;  and  am  even  at  this  moment  so  occupied  that  I  have 
not  time  to  say  more  than  that  I  hope  to  see  you  before  your  de- 
parture, and  tliat 

"  I  am  always  your  sincere  friend, 

"  M.  Blessington." 


190  MEMOIRS 


Soon  after  arrival  in  Lisbon  Dr.  Madden  became  an  intime  of 
the  hospitable  Irish  Dominican  College  of  Corpo  Santo,  where  his 
son  received  the  rudiments  of  education  ;  and  the  latter  still  retains 
a  grateful  recollection  of  its  successive  presidents  :  Dr.  Savage  and 
Dr.  Russell,  who  with  F.  Conway,  F.  Towers,  and  the  other 
members  of  that  community,  then  maintained  the  high  repu- 
tation of  their  order  in  the  Lusitanian  capital.  During  that  resi- 
dence of  three  years  in  Lisbon,  more  than  once  the  storm  of  revo- 
lution swept  over  Portugal,  and  its  force  was  chiefly  directed 
against  the  religious  orders  of  the  country.  A  few  years  previously 
the  Portuguese  monastic  institutions  had  been  suppressed  and 
plundered  by  the  noi  clisani  liberals  of  the  period,  and  often  has 
the  editor  of  this  memoir  seen  the  aged  and  impoverished  expel- 
led members  of  the  monastic  institutions  forced  to  beg  for  their  daily 
bread  from  door  to  door  in  the  streets  of  Lisbon,  or  at  the  portals 
of  the  sanctuaries  that  had  sheltered  the  erudition  and  sanctity  of 
a  better  age.     Such  a  scene  was  described  in  the  following  lines  : — 


THE    MONK    OF    BELEM. 

That  aged  man  who  bends  beneath 

The  weight  of  woes  as  well  as  years, 
Who  begs  his  bread  in  bated  breath, 

With  downcast  eyes  suffused  with  tears, 
Whose  arms  are  folded  on  his  breast. 

As  if  long  habit  fixed  them  there, 
And  those  poor  withered  hands  sought  rest, 

And  found  repose  alone  in  prayer. 


That  abject  beggar,  forced  abroad, 

Who  stoops  for  alms  as  you  pass  by. 
Has  stood  erect  before  his  God, 

And  raised  the  Sacred  Host  on  high  ! 
Those  trembling  hands  of  his  of  yore 

(In  times  when  faith  had  shrines)  the  Bread 
Of  Life  have  held  ;  and  oft  have  o'er 

The  consecrated  cup  been  spread. 

What  impious  bands  has  wrecked  those  shrines 

Where  humble  faith  was  wont  to  bow  ? 
What  "  Scourge  of  God,"  with  fell  designs. 

Has  come  to  lay  religion  low — 
To  bring  its  altars  to  the  dust. 

Its  servants  to  the  direst  doom. 
Secluded  virtue  forth  to  thrust 

Erom  its  asylum  and  its  home  ? 


DR.    R.    E-    MADDEN. 


191 


What  modern  Attila  ordains 

A  solitude  in  Belem's  walls, 
And  calls  it  peace  where  silence  reigns, 

And  cloistered  stillness  now  appalls  ? 
What  new  "  Defender  of  the  Faith  " 

To  Mafra's  ample  spoil  lays  claim, 
And  wages  warfare  to  the  death 

With  Justice  in  KeUgion's  name  ? 

The  solemn  chant  is  heard  no  more 

Within  that  venerable  pile  ; 
The  vesper  hymn  that  softly  bore 

The  Virgin's  praise  from  aisle  to  aisle, 
The  sounds,  the  sights  that  gave  a  soul 

To  piety,  no  more  are  there — 
No  more  absorb  each  sense,  control 

Each  thought,  and  wrap  the  mind  in  prayer. 

it.  Ix.   iVi. 

The  results  of  the  spoliation  of  the  monasteries  of  Spain  and 
Portugal  was  still  in  full  operation  when  the  author  first  visited 
the  Peninsula  and  are  alluded  to  in  his  History  of  the 
Penal  Laws  against  Roman  Catholics.  The  hbraries  of  the 
monasteries  were  not  more  sacred  than  the  shrmes  and  altars  ot 
their  churches  in  the  eyes  of  the  licensed  robbers.  Ihe  sp  endid 
missals  and  illuminated  manuscripts  of  the  convents  were  riiled  ot 
their  clasps  and  covers,  for  the  sake  of  their  gold  and  silver  orna- 
ments        This   villainous   example,  in  recent  times,  was  ioi- 

lowed  by  the  rapacious  liberals  of  Spain  and  Portugal.  The  author, 
in  both  countries,  has  seen  the  most  valuable  works  taken  from  the 
pillaged  convents,  thus  despoiled  of  their  covers,  m  grocers  shops, 
sold  by  the  Arroba  weight  of  thirty-two  pounds.  .  ,     -r.     ,r  ^ 

In  the  course  of  his  articles  in  the  Morning  Chronicle  Dr.  Mad- 
den describes  the  then  Government  of  Portugal  as  being  largely 
under  the  influence  of  Senor  De  Costa  Cabral,  one  of  two  brothers 
who  had  succeeded  in  raising  themselves  on  the  ultm-democratic 
party  from  a  very  humble  position  to  the  pinnacle  of  political  power. 
The  youno-er  of  these,  Antonio  De  Costa  Cabral,  who  iiUed  the 
offices  of  &overnor  of  Lisbon  and  Minister  of  Justice  and  Rehgion, 
is  stated  during  his  ministry  to  have  suspended  the  Constitution 
three  times.     This  energy  beyond  the  law,  soon  brought  law  and 
order  into  disrepute,  and  the  discontent  thus  excited  culminated  m 
a  revolt,  which  was  suppressed  with  great  difficulty.     The  tinances 
became  more  and  more  embarrassed,  the  stocks  were  supported  by 
means   of    an    organized  system   of   loan-making,   anticipation   ot 
revenue,  and  stock- jobbing  operations  carried  on  with  monopolist 
companies  of  capilali.ts,  for  which,  in  several  instances,  enormous 
sums  were  paid  to  the  Government.     The  creation  of  bubb  c  com- 
panics,  the  nature  of  the  terms  entered  into  with  the  public  con- 
tractors,  the  necessary  expenses  of  a  governmunt  bayonetted  up  by 


192  MEMOIRS 


a  large  military  force,  increased  so  heavily  the  charges  on  the  trea- 
sury, that  in  four  years  they  exceeded  the  revenue  by  8,000  contos. 
The  exposure  in  the  Enghsh  Press  of  the  financial  policy  of  the 
Portuguese  Government  of  that  day,  proved  so  adverse  to  their 
monetary  interests  in  England,  that  strenuous  efforts  were  made 
by  some  of  the  ministry  to  suppress  the  truth.  In  documents  now 
before  the  editor  of  this  biography  are  details  of  such  attempts,  at 
first  by  offers  of  personal  advantage,  and,  when  these  were  repulsed 
with  indignation,  then  by  futile  threats  to  influence  the  outspoken 
and  truthful  correspondent  of  the  Morning  Chronicle. 

POETUGAL. 

I. 

A  fertile  soil — a  genial  clime  is  here  ! 

A  land  that  Uod  with  goodly  gifts  has  blessed  ; 
A  glorious  sky,  serene  and  calm  and  clear, 

With  gorgeous  sunshine  glowing  on  its  breast. 
And  this  is  nature's  work  !     But  all  the  rest 

Is  man's— the  gloom  that  shrouds  inteUigence, 
That  sinks  the  spirit  saddened  and  oppressed, 

And  grieves  the  heart  and  gives  at  once  offence 

And  pain  to  every  feeling  and  to  outward  sense. 


What  hath  subdued  man's  nature  in  this  land 

To  such  debasement  ?    This  objection  made 
Not  incidental  to  the  class  that  is  bann'd — 

The  poor  contimaed  :  but  in  the  highest  grade 
Inherent  seen  !    Hath  retribution  laid 

Its  hand  at  last  upon  the  lust  of  gold, 
The  game  of  conquest  and  the  laurelled  trade 

Of  raid  and  rapine —  of  injustice  bold. 

In  poor  religion's  name  achieved  and  then  extolled. 
Lisbon,   1814. 

In  August  1810,  Mrs.  Madden  with  her  son,  Dr.  M.,  being 
detained  a  little  longer,  took  their  departure  from  Lisbon  in  a 
small  saihng  vessel,  and  after  a  stormy  passage  of  nearly  three 
weeks  to  Liverpool,  arrived  in  Dublin.  Three  months  later  they 
crossed  over  by  steamer  to  Southampton,  thence  to  Havre.  From 
there  they  proceeded  by  diligence  to  Rouen,  and  by  the  recently 
opened  railway  up  to  Paris.  Here  they  remained  for  the  following 
year,  whilst  their  eldest  son,  William  Forde  Madden,  who  had 
been  educated  in  the  Royal  College  of  Versailles,  pursued  his  pro- 
fessional studies  as  a  civil  engineer  in  the  Ecole  Polytecnique, 
the  diploma  of  which  then  as  now  was  regarded  as  a  rigid  test  of 
mathematical  and  scientific  attainrnents,  and  where  he  passed  through 
his  course  with  much  distinction.     In  October  1847,  they  returned 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  193 


to  London,  and  the  ensuing  month  was  chiefly  occupied  with  pre- 
parations for  their  intended  voyage  to  "Western  Austraha,  to  the 
Colonial  Secretaryship  of  which  Dr.  Madden  had  recently  heen  ap- 
pointed. Amongst  the  many  congratulations  he  received  on  this 
occasion,  none  was  more  highly  valued  than  the  following  letter  from 
Lady  Blessington  : — 

"  Gore  House,  8th  June  1847. 

"  I  have  been  wondering  why  I  have  been  so  long  without  seeing 
you,  and  had  I  known  your  address,  which  unfortunately  had  been 
lost,  I  should  certainly  have  written  to  you  to  say  so.  I  do  not 
lightly  form  friendships,  and  when  formed  I  do  not  allow  any  dif- 
ferences in  pohtical  opinions  to  interfere  with  them.  I  have  known 
you  too  long  and  too  well  not  to  feel  a  lively  interest  in  your  wel- 
fare, however  we  may  disagree  on  some  subjects. 

"  I  am  not  surprised,  though  greatly  pleased,  at  the  appointment 
offered  you  by  Lord  Grey,  for  he  is  a  man  capable  of  appreciating 
merit ;  and  you  left  so  high  a  character  whenever  previously  em- 
ployed, as  to  deserve  future  confidence.  I  only  regret  that  you  are 
going  so  far  away.  I  have  heard  such  favourable  accounts  of  the 
climate,  that  I  hope  your  absence  from  home  will  not  be  intermin- 
able, and  that  I  may  still  see  you  return  in  health  and  comfort. 
It  will  give  me  great  pleasure  to  see  you  before  you  depart,  and  to 
assure  you  of  my  unimpaired  regard.  Count  d'Orsay  charges  me 
with  his  kindest  wishes  for  your  health  and  happiness,  and  my 
nieces  send  theirs.  God  bless  you,  my  dear  Dr.  Madden.  Let 
me  hear  sometimes  from  you,  and  count  always  on  the  good  wishes 
of  your  sincere  friend, 

*'  M.  Blessington." 

[The  following  lines  were  called  forth  by  a  brief  visit  to 
Ireland  at  that  time  : — ] 

A    FAEEWELL    TO    IRELAND    IN    THE    FAMINE    YEAIi. 

Not  as  in  youth,  iu  brighter  days  of  yore. 

When  first  I  left  thee  my  cherished  land  ! 
And  gazed  on  all  the  beauties  of  thy  shore, 

And  gloried  in  them — mountain,  stream,  and  strand. 

Not  as  of  yore  I  leave  thee  now,  when  worse 

Than  war  is  raging  fiercely  on  thy  plains ; 
While  all  thy  fatal  beauty,  as  a  curse, 

Clings  to  thee  still,  but  cannot  hide  thy  chains. 

Not  as  of  old  I  bid  thee  now  farewell, 

Despite  past  griefs,  yet  hopeful  of  thy  weal ; 
But  full  of  sadness  leave  thee,  and  the  spell 

That's  on  thy  harp  seems  o'er  my  soul  to  steal. 

14 


194  MEMOIRS 


Here  famine,  leagued  with  pestilence  most  dire, 
Deals  more  destruction  on  our  people  far 

Than  all  the  ruin  Titus  or  his  sire 
Brought  on  the  Jews  in  six  dread  years  of  war. 

The  siege  is  here,— no  scene  of  bloody  strife  ; 

The  fields  are  green,  the  grain  luxuriant  waves, 
Which  men  who  starve  have  sown ;  and  death  is  rife 

Throughout  the  land — a  Golgotha  of  graves. 

Carnage  of  old  we  shudder  to  recall : 
Thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  killed  in  war 

In  distant  regions,  these  are  things  appall, 
And  move  all  feeling, — when  the  field's  afar. 

We  shrink  not  here  at  millions  famine  slain  ; 

Discord  surveys  all  horrors  undismayed. 
And  scornful  pity,  insolent  and  vain. 

Flings  down  its  alms,  and  hates  us  for  its  aid. 

Ill-fated  land  !  the  sickness  that  makes  hearts 
Most  hopeless,  surely  is  thy  destiny  ! 

**  Affliction  is  enamoured  of  thy  parts, 
And  thou  art  wedded  to  calamity." 

I  may  not  witness  ever  more  thy  woes, 
Nor  share  thy  griefs,  but  they  shall  blend,  I  trow. 

With  every  thought  of  mine  ;  and  wrongs  like  those 
Are  best  recalled,  perhaps,  in  exile  now. 
On  departure  for  Australia,  1847. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

SELECTIONS    FROBI    CORBESPOKDENCE. 

In  the  lives  of  few  individuals  have  the  "  many  parts  "  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  poet,  man  is  destined  to  fill  in  the  brief  drama  of  exist- 
ence, been  better  exemplified  than  by  the  subj  ect  of  these  pages.  Thus, 
we  have  already  traced  the  course  of  Dr.  Madden's  early  career  as 
an  Oriental  traveller,  then  as  a  pressman,  next  as  a  physician,  and 
subsequently  as  a  worker  in  the  Anti-Slavery  movement  in  the  West 
Indies,  America,  and  Africa.  Moreover,  his  literary  history  as  an 
author,  up  to  the  date  of  his  departure  for  x\ustralia  in  1847,  has 
been  described.  Before  referring  to  that  voyage,  we  may  here 
insert  some  selections  from  his  extensive  correspondence  with 
distinguished  personages  in  various  countries.     In  reference  to  this 


DK.    K.    E.    MADDEN.  195 


selection,  the  editor  would  however  observe  that  many  letters  of 
probably  greater  interest  have  been  passed  over,  for  the  present  at 
least,  for  reasons  which  may  be  best  alluded  to  in  the  words 
of  Dr.  Johnson,  who,  in  his  notice  of  the  closing  scene  of  the 
life  of  Addison,  says:  —  "The  necessity  of  complying  with  times, 
and  of  sparing  persons,  is  the  great  impediment  of  biography. 
What  is  known  can  seldom  be  immediately  told  ;  and  when  it 
might  be  told  it  is  no  longer  known.  I  begin  to  feel  myself  walk- 
ing upon  ashes,  under  which  the  fire  is  not  extinguished,  and 
coming  to  the  time  when  it  will  be  proper  rather  to  say  nothing 
that  is  false,  than  all  that  is  true."  To  the  following  letters  may 
also  be  prefixed  some  unpublished  observations  of  Dr.  Madden  on 
"  The  Use  and  Abuse  of  Private  Letters  in  Bibliographical  Publi- 
cations.— The  only  legitimate  objections  to  the  use  of  such  letters 
are  that  their  publication  is  calculated  either  to  injure  the  interests 
or  wound  the  feelings  of  surviving  persons,  or  that  it  would  be  pre- 
judicial  to   the  reputation  of  the  dead Curlis' practice  of 

publishing    the  letters   as   well   as    the   memoirs   of  eminent  per- 
sons, without  any  regard  to  the  wishes  of  their  friends,  was  simply 
an  infamous  act.     Unfortunately  we  have  still  busy  amongst  us 
some  of  Curlis' literary  successors,  who  by  thus  unwarrantably  invading 
the  sanctity  of  private  life,  as  Arbuthnot"  well  said,  "  add  a  new  terror 
to  death,"  and  can  only  be  regarded  as  hterary  freebooters  and  pests 
to  society.  A  biographer  should,  moreover,  bear  in  mind  that  it  is 
morally  binding  on  the  conscience  of  those   who  have  to  deal  with 
private  letters  to  be  well  assured  that  their  publication  is  justified  in 
the  interests  of  truth  and  justice,  as  well  as  in  those  of  literature,  or  • 
country,  or  private  friendship.  Nor  is  there  any  species  of  sacrilege, 
with  one  exception,  worse  than  the  wanton  violation  of  secrets  which 
involves  the  crime  of  treachery  to  the  dead,  and  the  in  diction  of 
pain   on   surviving  friends,    without   any   legitimate    intention    or 
likely  prospect  of  benefiting  society  at  large." 

(From  Lord  Blessingtou  to  K.  R.  M). 

Naples,  May  10th,  1821. 

My  dear  Madden, — I  see  your  thoughts  are  still  turning  to  Ireland  with 
respect  to  the  subject  of  liepeal  of  the  Union.  I  fear  it  would  be  worse 
than  a  negative  measure.  We  are  impoverished  in  money  and  talent — 
England  has  a  superabundancy  of  the  one  and  a  sufficiency  of  the  other, 
if  she  will  apply  her  materials  to  her  good.  Send  the  Parliament  back  to 
Dublin,  and  that  town  will  perhaps  flourish  again  ;  but  I  fear  the  same 
effect  would  not  be  produced  throughout  the  Kingdom  ;  and  if  to  forward  the 
views  which  I  think  absolutely  necessary  for  Ireland,  the  Commons  should 
have  to  impose  heavy  taxes,  being  refused  aid  from  England,  the  people  would 
have  cause  for  dissatisfaction,  and  an  Irishman's  mode  of  expressing  it  is 

U  * 


196  MEMOIRS 


blows,  not  words.  Let  the  R.  Catholic  Church  of  Ireland  separate  itself  in 
toto  from  the  Pope ;  establish  a  better  mode  of  educating  the  priesthood  ; 
take  away  tithes,  and  pay  the  Reformed  Church  out  of  the  public  purse ; 
admit  R.  Catholics  to  the  Houses  of  Parliament  and  the  Bench  ;  at  the  same 
time  establishing  throughout  Ireland  an  extensive  gendarmerie,  not  for 
political,  but  judicial  purposes  ;  make  the  nobility  and  gentry  live  on  their 
estates  or  sell  them  ;  give  a  grant  sufficient  to  cut  canals  in  what  are  now 
barren  districts ;  let  there  be  neither  Ptibbonmen,  Freemasons,  or  Orange- 
men ;  let  offenders  against  the  public  peace,  of  whatever  party,  be  sent  to 
the  Colonies  ;  let  the  middling  classes  be  taught  that  public  money  is  levied 
for  the  public  good  and  not  for  individual  advantage,  and  then  Ireland  will 
be  what  Ireland  should  be,  from  its  situation  and  with  its  natural  advan- 
tages— a  Queen  in  the  Ocean. 

Blessingtom. 


Naples,  August  15th,  1824. 

My  dear  Sir, — I  send  yon  the  letter  from  Lord  Strangford,  which  I  hope 
may  be  useful  to  you.  I  trust  the  experiment  you  are  about  to  make  will 
be  successful.  You  will  have  the  advantage  at  least  of  seeing  the  world, 
and  a  medical  man  alone  has  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  interior  of 
Turkish  abodes. 

Wishing  you  health  and  prosperty,  I  remain,  yours  very  truly, 

Blessington. 
R.  R.  Madden,  Esq.,  M.D. 


(From  M.  le  Comte  Julien  de  Paris). 

Londres,  23rd  October  1833. 

Monsieur,— J'ai  bien  regrc-.tte  d'arriver  trop  tard  pour  vous  voir,  avant 
que  vous  avez  quitte  Londres.  J'ai  beaucoup  parl6  de  vous  avec  votre  ex- 
cellente  amie,  la  belle  et  spirituelle  Lady  Blessington,  et  avec  M.  le  Dr. 
Beattie  et  M.  le  Comte  d'Orsay. 

Je  proiite,  pour  me  rappeller  a  votre  bon  souvenir,  de  I'occasion  de  Mr. 
Richard  Hill,  jeune  homme  d'un  grand  merite,  d'un  noble  et  honorable 
caract^re,  qui  se  rend  a  la  Jamaique,  ou  il  sera  charme  de  faire  votre  con- 
naissance  personuelle,  vous  connaissant  deja  tres  bien  de  reputation  et  ou 
vous  aimerez,  de  votre  cote,  j'e  suis  sur,  a  entrer  en  r61ation  avec  lui  M.  le 
Dr.  Madden  a  la  Jamaique. 

Je  me  fiatte  de  recevoir  a  la  fois  de  vos  nouvelles  et  des  siennes,  et 
d'obtenir  par  M.  Hill  et  par  vous,  des  informations  exactes  sur  la  Colonie 
que  vouB  allez  habiter,  a  laquelle  il  sera  avantageux  d'etre  mieux  connu  en 
Europe,  je  joins  ici  des  prospectus  de  la  Revue  Cosmopolite  que  je  recom- 
mande  a  vos  bons  soins,  pour  lui  procurer  des  souscripteurs  et  des  corre- 
spondans.  Soyez  vous  meme  son  correspondant  actif  pour  la  partie  que 
vous  avez  choisie,  et  sur  laquelle  il  vous  conviendra  de  veillir  et  de 
m'envover  des  documens. 


DR.    R.    II.    MADDEN.  197 


Addressez  moi  en  toute  confiance  ceux  de  vos  amis  qui  seront  dans  le  cas 
de  venir  in  France. 

Agreez,  Monsieur,  I'assurance  nouvelle  de  mes  sentiments  tres  distingu6s 
et  devoues. 

JuLiEN  DE  Paris. 

A  Londres,  chez   Mme.  Borronge   et  Gie    libraries  a  Londre,  14  Great 
Marlboro'-street ;  a  Paris,  Rue  du  Rocher,  No.  23,  pres  la  rue  Elys6e. 


(From  Dr.  Beattie). 

Berkley- St.,  Portman-square, 
Feb.  18tli,  1834. 
My  dear  Friend,— I  was  truly  rejoiced  to  see  your  autograph  once  more, 
and  had  it  nearly  up,  exclaiming  with  Pindar — 

"  Madden,  Madden,  thou'rt  a  sad'un  ! 

Sure,  you  promised  for  to  write  ! 
While  I've  waiting,  much  debating, 

"  Mail  "-men  rating,  morn  and  night ! 
This  "  simmering  cauldron's  "  smoke  inhaling, 
(Its  cough  a  suffering  lungs  entailing), 
At  bards,  and  books,  and  critics  railing — 

Sleeping— sulking  o'er  my  beer. 
I  asked — "  Has  Madden  sought  Benares  ? 
Or  tuned  in  song  the  far  Canaries, 
And,  Laureate  to  the  Queen  of  Fairies, 

Forgot  the  bard  that  grovels  here  ?  " 
But  for  answer,  every  man,  sir. 
Said — "He  knew  no  more  than  I  Sir." 

Weather  desperately  cold  ;  Serpentine  frozen  over.  Letters  from  Ancona 
and  Milan  this  mornmg  ;  ground  there  covered  with  snow.  Bulwer's  Last 
of  the  Tribunes  just  out,  and  producing  a  wonderful  sensation  among  the 
sensitive  public.  I  am  going  into  the  city  this  evening  to  renew  my 
inquiries  after  something  in  our  way. 

The  womankind  join  with  me  in  kindest  regards  to  Mrs.  Madden  and  the 
young ,  and  with  every  affectionate  wish 

I  remain,  my  dear  Madden, 

Most  sincerely  yours, 
W.  Beattie. 
I  have  not  met  Quin  since  you  and  I  dined  there. 


(From  Lady  Blessington). 

Seamorc  Place,  March  12th,  1834^ 
My  dear  Dr.  Madden, — I  saw  Dr.  Beattie  a  few  days  ago  ;  ho  continues  to 
feel  a  lively  interest  in  your  welfare,  and  I  am  persuaded  you  have  few  more 
sincere  friends. 


198 


MEMOIRS 


He  is  a  man  whose  heart  is  as  warm  as  his  head  is  sensible  and  clever, 
and  one  such  as  the  present  times  rarely  offer  in  the  number  of  our  friends. 
He  has  just  brought  out  the  first  number  of  a  work  entitled  Sioitzerland, 
illustrated  with  beautiful  engravings,  and  the  style  of  the  book  is  admirable, 
and  highly  creditable  to  him.  Mr.  Campbell  I  never  see,  and  seldom  hear 
of,  either  in  the  literary  or  social  world.  I  hope  he  will  soon  give  us  his 
Memoirs  of  Mrs.  Siddons,  for  it  is  time  they  should  come  forth. 

I  trust  your  pen  is  not  idle  ;  I  look  forward  to  a  lively  novel  descriptive  of 
Life  in  the  West  Indies,  with  no  trifling  impatience.  It  will  give  me  pleasure 
to  hear  from  you  whenever  you  have  a  leisure  half  hour  to  give  me. 

M.  Blessington. 


Gore  House,  Tuesday. 

My  dear  Dr.  Madden, — I  have  read  witli  great  interest  the  books,  &c., 
which  you  confided  to  me,  and  which  I  now  return.  I  send  you  a  pedigree, 
on  the  authenticity  of  which  you  may  rely. 

Mr.  Edmond  Sheehy,  referred  to  as  having  been  executed  for  rebellion, 
was  my  unfortunate  grandfather.  He  lived  at  the  Lodge,  Bawnfoune, 
county  Waterford,  about  seven  or  eight  miles  from  Clonmel.  I  cannot  make 
out  in  what  degree  of  relationship  he  stood  to  Father  Nicholas  Sheehy,  as 
my  mother  never  referred  to  the  subject  without  horror.  She  lost  her 
father  when  she  was  only  two  years  old. 

Musgrave  refers  to  Edmond  Sheehy  in  his  book.  I  have  heard  that  my 
grandfather  was  a  chivalrous-minded  man,  to  whom  pardon  was  offered  if  he 
would  betray  others.  I  also  knov/  that  he  was  nearly  related  to  Father 
Nicholas  Sheehy  ;  but  as  no  mention  of  this  is  made  in  the  pedigi'ee,  I  know 
not  the  degree  of  relationship.  I  should  much  like  that  justice  could  be 
rendered  to  the  memories  of  my  unfortunate  relatives,  without  any  violation 
of  truth.  I  shall  look  for  your  new  book  with  impatience,  and  will  do  what  I 
can  to  forward  its  circulation. 

M.  Blessington. 


WALTEK    SAVAGE    lANDOE* 

"  Of  all  the  literary  men  with  whom  Lady  Blessington  came  in  contact," 
says  Dr.  Madden,  "  there  were  few  whom  she  looked  on  with  more 
respect  and  regard  as  "Walter  Savage  Lundor.  In  referring  to  some 
feminine  calumnies  concerning  Lady  Blessington,  Mr.  Landor,  in 
the  concluding  lines  of  a  letter  of  his  to  her  biographer,  dated  Bath, 
Feb.  17th,  1855,  says — "  These  virtuous  ladies !  instead  of  censuring  her 
faults,  should  attempt  to  imitate  her  virtues.  Believe  that,  if  any  excess 
may  be  run  into,  the  excess  of  tenderness  is  quite  as  pardonable  as  that  of 
malignity  and  rancour." 

"  Wa^tek  S.  Landor." 


DR.    R.    E.    MADDEN.  199 


(From  Lord  Glenelg). 

Downing-street,  October  25th,  1837. 
My  dear  Sir, — At  the  request  of  Lord  Granville,  I  beg  leave  to  introduce 
to  you  the  bearer  of  this  letter,  Mr.  TurnbuLl,  who  intends  to  make  a  tour 
through  Canada,  the  United  States,  and  Mexico,  for  purposes  of  general 
interest  which  he  will  himself  explain  to  you.  From  the  character  which 
has  reached  me  of  this  gentleman,  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  any  civilities 
it  may  be  in  your  power  to  show  him  will  not  be  ill-bestowed. 

I  am,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  very  truly, 

Glenelg. 
De.  Madden,  &c.,  &c. 


(From  Thomas  Campbell). 

12,  Waterloo-place, 

Saturday,  January  18th,  1830. 

My  dear  Madden, — Can  you  dine  with  me  any  Sunday,  Saturday, 
Thursday,  or  Tuesday  at  six  p.m.  These  are  the  days  allotted  for  our 
bringing  friends  not  members  to  dine  ;  but  if  no  one  of  these  days  will  suit 
you — name  any  other  day,  and  we  shall  have  a  snug  party  at  my  chambers. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Thomas  Campbell. 

I  dined  with  "  Cambyses  "  (Sir  John  Hobhouse)  some  four  or  five  Sundays 
ago,  and  we  had  a  party  of  the  creatures — Whigs  and  Tories.  We  made  in 
all  sixteen.  I  abstained  from  saying  a  word  about  politics  till  he  began  by 
attacking  me  about  the  Polish  Association,  whereupon,  as  he  had  broken  the 
ice,  I  thought  it  no  harm  to  tell  him  plainly  my  mind  about  the  whole 
foreign  policy  of  this  present  Administration  ;  and  though  I  had  fifteen 
to  one  in  the  whole  company  against  me,  yet  I  Jit,  as  Winifred  Jenkins  says, 
with  them  all  round,  and  laid  in  some  particularly  hard  blows  at  my  friend 
Hob.  The  fact  is,  the  Grey  Administration  is,  for  foreign  policy,  the  most 
contemptible  that  ever  this  country  had.  They  now  begin  to  boast  that 
Lord  Durham's  mission  is  softening  Nicholas.  Good  God  !  what  an  impu- 
dent boast — if  it  were  true,  as  I  believe  it  to  be  a  lie.  Our  mediation,  they 
say,  is  now  alleviating  the  fate  of  Poland.  If  so,  what  would  our  mediation 
have  done  when  the  Poles  were  yet  in  arms. 

I  hope  you  agree  with  me  in  admiring  the  personal  amenity  of  Priuco 
Czartorzski. 

Begging  my  best  regards  to  Mrs.  Madden, 

I  remain,  my  dear  friend. 
Yours  truly, 

T.  Campbell. 
Sussex  Chambers,  Dukc-strcct,  St.  James's,  London,  August  20th,  1832. 


200  MEMOIRS 


(From  Thomas  Moore). 

Sloperton  Cottage,  April  20th,  1842. 

Dear  Dr.  Madden, — I  have  within  these  few  days  received  a  letter  from 
Mrs.  Hancock  (daughter  of  Samuel  Neilson)  requesting  my  interference 
with  you  on  the  subject  of  the  charge  brought  against  her  father  of  having 
betrayed  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald.  I  had  a  good  deal  of  correspondence 
with  Mr.  Hancock  on  this  subject  at  the  time  of  the  appearance  of  my 
Life  of  Lord  Edward,  and  made  some  alterations,  I  forget  to  v/hat  extent, 
in  the  second  edition  of  that  work,  in  order  to  quiet  Mrs.  Hancock's  feelings. 
It  is  so  long  since  this  correspondence  took  place  that  I  very  much  forget 
how  far  the  evidence  siie  produced  in  exculpation  of  Neilson  was  effective 
towards  that  object.  But  should  you  wish  to  see  those  papers,  I  shall  try  to 
disinter  them  from  the  dusty  darkness  to  which  they  are  consigned  to  wait 
that  day  when  I  shall  be  far  advanced  enough  in  my  long  task  to  want  them. 

Believe  me,  yours  truly, 

Thomas  Moore. 
E.  B.  Madden. 


Those  who  only  knew  Moore  in  fashionable  circles,  or  through 
his  diaries,  are  very  unlikely  to  be  acquainted  with  the  best  part 
of  his  character,  and  what  was  most  estimable  and  deserving  of 
honour  in  his  principles.  The  following  letter,  expressive  of  his 
views  respecting  Cuban  slavery,  and  the  conduct  of  the  Irish  in 
America  in  relation  to  slavery,  is  so  creditable  to  his  sentiments, 
that  it  may  be  subjoined  to  th(i  preceding  letters — 

Sloperton  Cottage,  March  8th,  1840. 

My  dear  Dr.  Madden, — I  have  but  time  to  acknowledge  and  thank  you  for 
the  very  interesting  paper  on  slavery  which  you  were  so  kind  as  to  send  me 
through  the  hands  of  my  sister.'  I  am  not  surprised  that  you  should  have 
returned  bursting  with  indignation — more  especially  against  those  fellow- 
countrymen  of  ours  (and  fellow-Catholics),  who  by  their  advocacy  of  slavery 
bring  so  much  disgrace  both  upon  their  country  and  creed. 

"Wishing  you  every  success  in  your  benevolent  efforts, 

I  am  very  truly  yours, 

Thomas  Moore. 


(From  Thomas  Campbell). 

My  dear  Madden, — Nothing  would  give  me  greater  pleasure  than  to  join 
you — if  I  could  leave  London.  But  I  am  chained  to  it,  and  shall  be  so 
until  I  have  laid  in  full  materials  for  the  Life  of  Mrs.  Siddons. 

Ever  faithfully  yours, 

My  dear  Madden, 

T.  Campbell. 


1>K.    E.    T~t   MADDEN.  201 


(From  Dr.  Beattie  to  R.  R.  M.  on  his  departure  for  the  West  Indies  in  1833). 

Strong  as  some  sainted  amulet, 

The  link  in  memory's  chain, 
That  tells  where  kindred  spirits  met, 

No  time  can  rend  in  twain. 
And  mindful  of  her  pledge,  the  Muse 

One  passing  wreath  would  twine. 
And  trace  in  every  flower  she  strews, 

A  health  to  thee  and  thine. 

The  union  of  congenial  minds 

No  distance  can  divide, 
Unshaken  in  the  shock  of  winds, 

Unstemmed  by  ocean's  tide. 
It  lives  beyond  the  Atlantic  main. 

Where  basking  'neath  the  line, 
A  sun  bright  shore,  a  palmy  plain. 

Shall  welcome  thee  and  thine. 

Embowered  within  the  glowing  west. 

And  circled  by  the  sea, 
Which  laves  "  the  Islands  of  the  Blessed," 

A  health  to  them  and  thee. 
And  gentle  stars,  and  generous  hearts, 

Tbeir  genial  lights  combine. 
And  all  that  halcyon  peace  imparts. 

Descend  on  thee  and  thine. 

Adieu— the  breath  of  friendship  fills 

The  sail  that  wafts  thee  hence. 
To  lands  whose  radiant  sky  distils 

Arabia's  redolence  ! 
Oo— but  a  few  brief  summers  flown. 

Once  more  across  the  brine — 
Thy  country  shall  reclaim  the  loan 

She  lent  in  thee  and  thine  ! 

W.  Beattie. 

London,  September  'dOth. 


(From  Washington  Irving,  transmitting  a  contribution  for  Lady 
Blessington's  Annual). 

Newhftll,  May  2nd,  1835. 

My  dear  Sir,— I  enclose  a  nautical  anecdote,  written  down  pretty  much  as 
I  heard  it  related  a  few  years  since  by  one  of  my  sea-faring  countrymen.  I 
hope  it  may  be  acceptable  to  Lady  Blcssington,  for  her  Annual, jmd  only 
regret  that  I  had  nothing  at  hand  more  likely  to  be  to  her  taste.  However, 
in  miscellaneous  publications  of  the  kind,  every  humour  has  to  be  consulted, 
and  a  IJirpaulin  story  may  present  an  acceptable  contrast  to  others  more 
sentimental  and  refined. 


202  MEMOIRS 


I  beg-  you  to  present  my  kindest  remembrances  to  Lady  Blessington,  and 
believe  me,  my  dear  sir,  with  high  interest  and  regard,  very  faithfully  yours, 

Washinoton  Irving. 


(From  James  Sheridan  Knowles). 

Gibraltar,  24th  June  1845. 

"  Out  of  sight,  out  of  mind  " — Ch.  Madden.  No,  by  the  goddesses !  You 
are  not  a  friend  once  grappled  to  be  easily  let  go.  A  yarn  for  you,  short 
though  it  may  be. 

I  have  been  most  cordially  received  in  this  port,  but  my  lectures  are  not 
within  a  third  so  productive  as  those  which  I  delivered  in  Lisbon.  The 
humbug  of  saintships  indicates  an  approximation  to  the  British  shore.  It 
is  a  fact  several  families  have  eschewed  the  lectures  on  the  score  of  religious 
feeling.  "  They  never  go  to  plays."  My  audience  has  been  respectable, 
and  all  has  otherwise  gone  well.  I  have  been  feasted  to  the  height  of  hospi- 
tality. Constant  calls  from  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  highest  rank  here. 
Young  More  has  been  indefatigable  in  his  attention.  He  is  a  noble 
young  fellow,  very  like  his  incomparable  father — in  countenance  and 
in  heart.  I  conclude  here  on  Thursday  next,  and  return  to  England  by  the 
packet  that  will  arrive  in  Lisbon  to-day  or  to-morrow.  There  is  time,  how- 
ever, for  an  acknowledgment  of  this  our  most  gracious  address  to  your 
Majesty — so  out  of  the  inkstand  with  the  pen,  and  tell  us  how  dear  Mrs. 
Madden  is,  the  boy,  your  sweet  self,  and  all  friends,  and  infuse  a  little  news 
if  you  can — I  am  a  Greek  in  this.  Think  of  my  young  friends  honouring 
me  with  a  handsome  present  upon  my  departure — warm  hearted  rogues ! 
God  bless  them  and  prosper  them  in  their  most  responsible  undertaking. 
Give  my  kindest  regards  to  your  most  kind  lady  and  boy,  and  remember  us 
to  Mrs.  Tobin — not  forgetting  Mina. 

You  will  remember  us  also  to  Mr.  Hardy  and  his  son,  and  perhaps  you 

will  give my  best  thanks.     His  article  has  served  me  greatly  here, 

having  been  copied  by  one  of  the  papers.  Farewell — if  you  love  writing  as 
well  as  I  do,  you  may  happily  omit  to  answer  this  for  a  month ;  if  your 
passion  for  the  pen  is  the  opposite,  a  post  or  two  may  sing  a  welcome  stave  to 

Your  attached  and  faithful  servant, 

James  Sheridan  Knowles. 
R.  R.  Madden. 


(From  the  Abbe  De  Lamenais). 

Je  vous  prie  instamment,  mon  cher  Monsieur  Madden,  d'accepter  I'ouvrage 
dans  lequel  se  trouve  la  note  qui  vous  interesse.  Si.  vous  voulez  bien  lire 
celle  qui  suit,  p.  208,  vous  verrez  que  la  ville  dont  vous  cherchez  le  nom  est 
Troyes  en  Champagne.  II  est,  d'ailleurs,  facile  de  verrifier  si  ce  fut,  en  ef^et, 
a  Troyes  que  fut  signe  la  traite  entre  Charles  IX.  et  Elizabeth,  en  Avril,  1564. 

Je  ne  sais  absolument  rien  de  celui  de  mes  aieux  qui  etait  d'origine  irlan- 
daise,  si  ce  n'est  pas  qu'il  s'appelait  Rosses,  qu'il  etait  un  des  refugies  qui 
emigraient  d'Irlande  au  temps  de  Jacques  II.,  et  qu'il  s'etablit  a  St.  Malo,  oh 
il  se  marie.  D'autres  emigres  du  nom  de  Whife  et  de  Hay,  s'y  etablirent 
aussi  a  a  meme  epoque.  J'ai  beaucoup  connu  leurs  families,  dont  ilnereste 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  203 


plus  depuis  quelques  annges,  que  des  descendants  par  las  femmes,  et  qui  par 
consequent,  portent  un  autre  nom. 

Si  je  puis  vous  aider  dans  vos  recherches  usez  de  moi  en  toute  liberte. 

Agreez  I'assurance  de  mon  ijevouement  et  de  mon  affection  bien  sincere. 

Lamenais. 

Jeudi  19  aoiit,  1852. 

P.S.— D'apres  ce  qui  precede,  vous  voyez  que  ma  grande  mere  est  nee  a 
St.  Malo.  Elle  y  est  morte  aupi  que  son  pere.  Elle  etait  tres  agee  quand 
nous  la  perdumes,  il  y  a  une  cinquante  d'annues. 

Monsieur  R.  E.  Madden. 


(From  Count  d'Orsay). 

Gore  House,  7th  May  1845. 

My  dear  Madden, — I  wish  that  you  would  protect  with  all  your  strength, 
power  and  eloquence  the  contemplated  project  of  a  railway  between  Lisbon 
and  Madrid.  My  nephew  the  Duke  de  Saldanha  is  one  of  the  directors,  and 
Sam  Buncombe  and  General  Bacon  will  be  the  active  men  with  the  Tortuguese 
Government,  as  tliat  Government  owes  him  a  great  deal  of  gratitude  for  his 
services,  and  are  of  opinion  that  they  will  succeed  in  obtaining  the  concession, 
because  Governments  are  very  generous  when  they  can  oblige  without  putting 
their  hands  in  their  own  pockets.  Bacon  is  going  very  soon  to  Lisbon,  ho 
will  see  you,  and  you  must  aid  him,  and  I  am  sure  that  you  will  be  glad  to 
do  it.  We  have  received  the  Portuguese  papers  that  you  sent  me,  and  which 
is  very  curious  is  that  without  knowing  one  word  of  that  language  or 
Spanish  I  could  uuder.staud  them  perfectly  well — you  had  the  best  of  it — 
of  which  I  was  delighted.  Lord  Howard  is  a  great  friend  of  ])acon,  in  fact 
he  is  a  great  favourite  at  Lisbon,  which  will  aid  the  undertaking.  The  old 
Intendentc  and  tutor  of  the  king,  and  who  is  his  chamberlain,  is  devoted  to 
Bacon.  Mr.  Dentry  I  think  his  name  is — Lady  Blessington  sends  you  her 
kindest  regards. 

I'elieve  me  always. 

Yours  most  faithfully, 

D'Oksay. 


(From  Sir  Thomas  Fowell  Buxton). 

October  23rd,  1835. 

My  dear  Sir, — No  wonder  you  think  me  a  most  faithless  correspondent, 
but  I  have  been  far  less  forgetful  of  you  and  your  letters  than  you  may 
imagine.  Some  time  ago  I  wrote  1o  you  the  two  letters  which  1  now  enclose. 
I  now  wisli  tliat  I  had  sent  them,  as  they  would  have  convinced  you  that  I 
had  not  forgotten  your  wishes. 

I  have  now  to  write  to  you  about  another  business  of  very  great  import- 
ance. I  have  been  diligently  engaged  of  late  in  preparing  a  pamphlet  for 
the  Government  upon  the  subject  of  slavery.  I  have  printed  a  few  copies  of 
it  for  their  exclusive  use,  which  I  find  has  attracted  great  attention  in  the 
Cabinet,  and  I  indulge  a  pretty  confident  hope  that  something  effectual  will 


204  MEMOIRS 


be  done.    My  book  consists  of  two  parts — first,  the  extent  and  horrors  of 

the  Slave-Trade  ;  secondly,  suggestions  for  its  aboHtion. 

I  am  under  solemn  promise  to  the  Government  not  to  divulge  the  sug- 
gestions, as  this  would  be  fatal  to  their  success  ;  and  it  is  the  less  necessary 
to  do  so  at  this  time,  as  the  plan  1  propose  is  quite  independent  of  any 
means  now  employed,  but  yet  you  may  render  me  and  the  cause  very  great 
service. 

I  send  you  the  proof  sheets  of  that  part  which  applies  to  the  extent  and 
horrors ,  and  my  earnest  request  to  you  is,  that  after  reading  it  you  will  be 
good  enough  to  furnish  me  with  any  new  proofs  and  elucidation — in  point 
of  fact,  anything  bearing  on  the  various  points  that  you  can  collect. 

Now  is  the  time  that  such  information  will  be  especially  useful.  Please 
also  to  tell  me  how  far  I  may  make  use  of  your  name  to  the  Government.  I 
have  not  done  so  as  yet,  because  you  had  not  given  me  permission. 

I  am  in  very  good  health,  and  the  better  for  being  out  of  Parliament  and 
devoted  to  the  Slave-Trade  inquiries. 

Believe  me, 

Ever  faithfully  yours, 

T.  F.  Buxton. 
R,  R.  Mapden. 


(From  Colonel  Phipps,  brother  of  Lord  Mulgrave). 

My  dear  Doctor, — I  return  you  your  manuscript,  which  I  have  detained 
longer  than  I  originally  intended,  as  I  wished  to  look  over  it  very  carefully. 
At  the  review  at  Huntley  Pastures,  Colonel  Browne  was  on  the  ground  at  the 
head  of  his  regiment  when  my  brother  and  I  arrived  ;  it  was  not,  therefore, 
"  on  his  coming  to  the  ground  that  he  was  dismissed."  Upon  his  dismissal, 
about  three-fourths  of  the  regiment  broke  and  quitted  the  ranks,  some  of  the 
officers  tore  off  their  epaulettes  and  trampled  upon  them,  &c.  The  men 
were,  however,  all  re-collected  in  the  ranks  and  marched  past  Lord  Mul- 
grave in  review  order  under  the  command  of  the  officer  next  in  rank,  not, 
however,  without  every  attempt  by  persuasion  and  abuse  from  the  mutinous 
officers  to  induce  the  men  to  refuse  to  perform  their  duty. 

I  thought  that  you  would  like  to  have  these  little  points .  corrected, 
though  they  are  not  of  much  importance. 

Ever  yours  very  truly, 

C.  B.  Phipps. 
3,  Little  Stanhope-street,  April  21st. 

R.  R.  Madden. 


(From  Lord  Howard  de  Walden,  H.  M.  Ambassador  to  the  Court  of 
Lisbon,  on  leaving  Portugal). 

Lisbon,  September  80th,  1846. 

My  dear  Sir, — In  returning  the  papers  left  in  my  hands  on  the  eve  of  your 
departure,  I  must  beg  of  you  to  accept  my  best  acknowledgments  for  the 
gratifying  consideration  which  you  have  so  invariably  evinced  in  all  your 
relations  with  me. 


I)E.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  205 


I  regret  extremely  that  yon  should  be  leaving  Portugal,  and  particularly 
at  this  moment  .  .  .  You  certainly  have  succeeded  in  establishing  a  reputa- 
tion for  integrity,  ability  and  independence  which,  combined  with  your  suc- 
cess in  obtaining  information,  give  to  your  articles  on  Portugal  in  TJp'  Ghrontcle 
an  importance  to  which  those  most  interested  in  its  alSau's  are  beginning  to  be 
forcibly  alive  at  last. 

I  firmly  hope  that  on  leaving  this  country  your  services  will  not  be  lost. 
.  .  .  And  that  our  friendship  is  not  to  be  terminated  here.  1  beg  that  you 
will  beUeve  in  the  very  sincere  regard  of 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

Howard  dk  Waldbn. 
R.  R.  Madden. 


(From  Lord  Brougham). 

4,  Grafton-street,  Tuesday  Morning. 

Dear  Sir, — I  expected  to  see  you  yesterday,  else  I  should  have  written  to 
ask  you  to  beg  the  favour  of  Dr.  Madden  that  he  would  come  to-morrow  to 
meet  Dr.  Lushiugton  and  you  at  dinner.  I  am  prevented  from  calling  on 
him  by  being  kept  the  whole  morning  in  the  House  of  Lords,  or  Privy 
Council;  and  the  only  chance  I  have  of  seeing  him  before  Thursday  is  his 
having  the  goodness  to  dine  here  to-morrow,  or  if  he  is  engaged,  to  come  in 
the  evening.     Captain  Denman,  to  whom  I  sent,  is  out  of  town. 

Yours  very  truly, 

H.  Brougham. 


(From  Lord  Brougham). 

A  Monsieur  Mignet,  Secretaire  Perpetuel  de  I'Listitut,  aux  Archives  des 
Affaires  Etrangeres. 

Brougham,  IGth  September. 

Mon  cher  et  dignc  confrere, — Permettez  que  je  vous  presente  mon  com- 
patriote  M.  Madden  qui  se  trouve  a  Paris  dans  ce  moment  occupe,  d'un 
ouvrage  asscz  interesssant  sur  I'histoire  des  Eevoltes  Irlandais  de  1798, 

Faites  votre  possible  pour  qu'il  puisse  etre  admis  aux  archives  de  la  guerre 
de  votre  departement,  car  il  no  pout  achever  son  travail  sans  consulter  les 
documents  qui  s'y  trouvont.  An  attendant  le  plaisir  de  vous  revoir  avant  la 
tm  d'  Ootobre  agreez  les  assurauceB,  &c. 

H.  Brougham. 


(From  Dr.  M'DonneU  of  Belfast). 

Tuesday,  8th  October,  1840. 

My  dear  Doctor, — There  are  three  or  four  people  with  whom  you  should 
converBB — Robert  Simms,  Mary  M'Cracken,  the  widow  of  Dr.  Magee,  Mrj 
Hughes  of  Holy  wood— the  father  of  the  latter  employed  Napper  Tandy  as 
his  agent  in  Dubhn ;  Sir  Edward  Newenham,  Q.  J,  Bennet,  iVIiliken,  an  old 
man  named  Hope,  whom  I  never  saw. 


206  MEMOIRS 


If  I  knew  when  to  expect  5'ou  any  evening  I  should  endeavour  to  find 
some  persons  to  meet  you.  Hoping  to  have  that  pleasure  soon,  I  am  your 
most  obliged  friend, 

J.    M'DONNELL. 

K.  B.  Madden. 


(From  Monsieur  Isambert,  Member  of  the  Assembly). 

J'arrive  de  la  campagne  ou  j'ai  vue  General  O'Connor  celebrant  sa  80me 
annee  le — mardi  4  juillet ;  c'est  ce  quim'aempeche  d'avoir  I'honneur  de  vous 
reiterer  la  visite.  Je  vais  lui  faire  parvenir  par  une  occasion  la  brochure  que 
vous  avez  fait  remettre  chez  moi  avec  votre  lettre. 

Nos  affaires  en  France  vont  trcs  mal  et  sur  les  rapports  de  I'abolition 
d'Esclavage  et  sur  toutes  les  autres  questions  de  hberte  on  etait  plus  liberal 
dans  les  dernieres  annces  de  la  Restoration. 


Paris  Samedi,  8  Juillet,  1843. 
MoNSiEua  LE  Dn.  Madden. 


Votre  tres  humble  aerviteur  et  ami, 

ISAMBEBT. 


(From  Sir  James   Stephens,  sometime   Under   Secreitary  of    State 
for  the  Colonies). 

Kichmond-on- Thames,  0th  October  1849. 

My  dear  Dr.  Madden,— I  will  now  tell  you  what  I  before  hinted,  that  it 
was  at  one  time  a  doubt  with  me  whether  I  should  not  visit  Ireland  as  a  Com- 
missioner for  the  sale  of  encumbered  estates.  A  more  gentle  gale  is  wafting 
me  to  Cambridge  as  Professor  of  Modern  History.  Pray  come  to  see  me 
there.  Papist,  Jesuit,  bigot  as  you  are,  we  will  not  fear  yoar  presence  in  our 
Protestant  University.  At  least  a  man  so  far  gone  as  I  am  in  toleration, 
will  not  only  endure  but  hail  your  presence,  and  I  will  make  you  known  to 
some  few  people  there  as  well  disposed  as  myself  to  sympathize  with  a 
fellow-christian,  notwithstanding  some  diversities  of  creed,  and  to  hope  for 
a  meeting  in  a  better  state,  in  which  our  errors  of  judgment  may  be  corrected 
and  pardoned,  and  our  natural  kindness  ripened  and  purified  from  the  dross 
that  adheres  to  it  in  our  best  estate  in  this  hfe. 

My  amanuensis  greets  you  well, 

Ever  yours, 

James  Stephens. 


(From  Lord  Cloncurry). 

Maritime,  4th  Nov.  1849. 
My  dear  Sir, — I  was  made  happy  by  hearing  of  your  recovery ;  we  cannot 
afford  to  lose  more  good  men,  and  a  better  than  you   our  friend  William 
Murphy  has  not  left  after  him. 


t>n.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  207 


In  looking  over  my  poor  book,  you  will  observe  that  there  are  scant 
authorities  or  correspondence  in  the  early  part  of  my  eventful  life.  A  little 
rieflection  will  explain  the  cause.  My  voluminous  papers  were  seized  in 
1798,  and  again  in  '90,  and  a  third  ransacking  took  place  at  Lyons  in  1803, 
by  my  magisterial  tenant  Clinch  whilst  I  was  in  Italy.  In  this  latter  robbery 
was  an  interesting  correspondence  with  Lord  Hardwicke  and  Mr  Kirnan. 

The  most  interesting  State  papers  (Lord  Anglesey's  letters)  were  reviewed 
by  himself.     I  obtained  his  unwilhng  permission  to  publish  them. 

They  show  his  lionesty,  his  talent,  and  his  desire  to  save  Ireland,  to  do 
which  he  was,  I  think,  more  fit  than  any  other  living  man.  If  Ireland  could 
be  saved  it  would  have  been  by  him. 


Very  faithfully  yours, 

Cloncurky. 


R.  E.  Madden. 


(From  W.  S.  O'Brien). 

11,  WeatlandRow, 

February  4th,  1846. 

Dear  Sir, — Allow  me  to  thank  you  very  sincerely  for  your  kind  present. 
I  shall  value  it  not  alone  on  account  of  its  Uterary  merits,  which  are  of  a 
high  order,  but  also  as  a  memorial  of  the  sentiments  entertained  towards 
me  by  its  author. 

Trusting  that  you  will  find  health  and  happiness  in  the  climes  in  which 
you  now  sojourn,  and  that  you  will  live  to  return  to  an  emancipated  country, 
and  long  be  a  witness  of  its  advancement  in  regard  of  everything  which  can 
bring  dignity  and  prosperity  to  a  powerful  kingdom, 

I  remain,  my  dear  Sir, 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

WxLLLiAM  S.  O'Brien. 
R.  R.  Madden. 

P.S. — I  hope  that  you  will  publish  the  lines  to  Emmet. 


(From  Sir  James  Stephens). 

26th  March  1850. 

My  dear  Dr.  Madden, — Your  note  has  just  reached  me  here — that  is,  at 
No.  5,^Alfred-place,  Broniptoii,  where  I  have  come  to  get  my  lectures  copied. 
I  tear  off  a  piece  of  the  paper  destined  to  that  service  (having  no  other  by 
me)  to  tell  you  how  very  happy  your  note  has  made  me  and  my  wife,  who  has 
just  looked  in  on  my  sohtary  lodging  here.  It  is  indeed  so  very  pleasant  an 
occurrence  that  I  don't  know  how  to  set  about  disavowing  the  share  in  it 
which  you  have  the  kindness  to  ascribe  to  me.  However,  may  God  bless 
you  (iud  yours  in  your  quiet  harbour  after  so  many  storms.    I  shall  certainly 


208  MEMOIRS 


take  you  at  your  word  the  very  first  day  I  can,  and  claim  the  dinner  and  the 
bad  which  you  so  hospitably  promised. 

Alas,  for  the  poor  Church  of  England.  I  think  the  Bishops  should  all 
wear  their  wigs  inverted,  so  as  to  make  veils  of  them.  They  sorely  stand  in 
need  of  some  such  shelter.  Would  you  believe  it  that  my  good  friends  at 
Cambridge  have  actually  taken  this  moment  for  preferring  a  kind  of  indict- 
ment, which,  however,  I  hear  has  been  sent  back  by  the  authorities  there 
with  "  no  true  bill "  upon  it.  Macaulay  bids  me  laugh  at  the  whole  thing, 
and  says  that  everybody  else  is  laughing  at  it. 

Farewell,  my  dear  Doctor  Madden.  We  are  travelling  different  roads 
under  different  guides.  May  it  be  to  the  same  home,  and  then  wo  shall 
understand  these  mysteries  better. 

Ever  yom-s, 

James  Stephens. 
E.  R.  Madden. 

P.S. — Our  cordial  congratulations  and  greetings  to  Mrs.  Madden, 


(From  Sir  Moaes  Montefiore). 

East  CHff  Lodge,  Ramsgate, 
17th  April  1876. 

My  dear  Dr.  Madden, — I  was  truly  delighted  with  your  very  kind  letter. 
It  made  me  remember  all  the  happy  days  I  and  my  beloved  and  much 
lamented  wife  spent  in  your  company,  in  lands  which  I  think  will  no  more 
be  called  the  barbarous  "  East,"  for  as  far  as  luxury  and  European  fashion 
they  surpass  England  and  France.  1  cheerfully  agree  to  what  your  biographer 
said  about  your  indefatigable  industry  and  high  literary  aptitude.  You 
surely  have  given  us  works  of  intense  national  interest,  and  posterity  will 
remember  your  name  in  honour  and  respect ;  but  I  do  not  approve  of  other 
remarks  which  he  introduces  in  reference  to  your  opinions  on  historical 
philosophy. 

I  often  think  of  you  when  reading  Lady  Montefiore's  Journal,  and  will  be 
delighted  to  see  you  and  Mrs.  Madden,  also  your  son,  whenever  you  happen 
to  come  to  Park  Lane  or  East  Cliff.  I  was  much  pleased  with  your  portrait. 
You  look  twenty  years  younger  than  when  last  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
you.  I  wish  you  had  been  with  me  at  Jerusalem  ;  you  would  have  noticed  a 
wonderful  change.  There  is  now  a  new  Jerusalem  outside  the  city  walls. 
Believing  you  would  like  to  know  something  about  my  movements  in  the 
Holy  Land,  I  send  you  the  accompanying  "  Narrative;  "  and  with  sincere 
wishes  that  you  may  continue  in  full  enjoyment  of  health  and  comfort,  and 
surrounded  by  your  dear  wife  and  family,  for  many  years  yet  to  come, 

I  remain,  my  dear  Dr.  Madden, 

Yours  sincerely, 

Moses  Montefiore. 

With  regard  to  my  own  state  of  health,  I  regret  to  say  that  I  have  been 
confined  to  my  chamber  the  whole  winter,  but  feel  now,  thauk  God,  much 
better. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  209 


(From  the  Eight  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone). 

Abbeyleix  Lodge,  Ireland, 

November  9th,  1877. 

Dear  Dr.  Madden, — I  take  it  as  a  great  kindness  on  your  part  to  recall 
yourself  to  my  remembrance,  and  I  accept  with  thaukfuluess  your  pious, 
good  wishes.  It  is  a  great  comfort  to  reilect  that  in  all  the  intercessions 
which  human  beings  may  offer  up  for  one  another  they  never  can  effect 
anything  but  what  is  good. 

♦  «*•**♦ 

I  hope  also  that  you  Imve  not  reason  to  feel  too  widely  severed  from  me  by 
my  opinions  concerning  your  Church.  I  should  have  trusted  that  there  is 
little  of  what  I  have  written,  except  as  to  persons  individually  and  in  certain 
cases,  which  would  have  struck  at  anything  which  you  individually  believed 
and  cherished.  I  do  not  forget  that  I  am  writing  to  the  biographer  of  Savo- 
narola. Probably  you  will  not  be  surprised  at  my  saying  that  I  believe  to  exist 
amongst  you  an  old  school  I  could  never  liave  cared  to  lift  my  feeble  hands 
against  in  the  arena  of  controversy.  I  even  think  that  is  known  and  felt  by 
many.  There  is  a  bishop  of  the  Latin  Church,  one  not  imknown  to  fame, 
who  has  within  the  last  three  years  honoured  me  greatly  beyond  my  deserts 
with  his  warm  friendship.  All  tliis  I  have  been  tempted  to  write  because 
that  which  commands  my  interest  is  the  union,  itot  the  separation,  of  those 
who  believe.     It  is  time  to  cease. 

Believe  me, 

Faithfully  yours, 

W.  E.  Gl.U)Stone. 
R.  R.  M.vDDEN,  Esq.,  M.D. 


Dublin  Castle,  Apiil  12th,  1871. 

My  dear  Madden,— Have  you  at  hand  Croker's  Ireland,  Past  and  Present? 
I  want  so  much  to  refer  to  it.  .  ,  .  Is  there  any  authentic  history  of 
the  Whiteboys  ?  and  where  can  one  find  old  Irish  trials. 

Yours  ever, 

J.  Bernard  Burke. 


3,  Veruon  Terrace,  Booterstown, 
13th  April  1871. 
Dear  Sir  Bernard, — I  need  hardly  tell  you  there  is  no  tract  or  trial  in  my 
possession  that  is  not  at  your  service.  But  for  the  use  or  service  of  the 
man,  James  Anthony  Froude,  the  eulogist  of  the  monster  Henry  YIII.,  the 
champion  of  his  hard-hearted  daughter.  Queen  Ehzabeth,  the  reckless 
defamer  of  the  unfortunate  Queen  Mary  of  Scotland,  the  very  recent  pro- 
claimer  of  the  inexpediency  of  any  measures  of  concilintion  in  favour  of 
Catholic  Ireland, — I  have  no  tracts,  trials,  or  informatiou» 

15 


210  MEMOIRS 


I  have  never  read  any  historical  works  of  a  man  so  perverted  in  mind,  so 
utterly  regardless  of  truth  in  dealing  with  historic  facts,  as  the  author  of 
the  History  of  England,  from  the  fall  of  Wolsey  to  the  death  of  Elizabeth, 
in  ten  volumes.  I  look  upon  him  as  so  unscrupulous,  an  opponent 
of  all  that  is  worthy  of  praise  or  pity  in  those  who  have  suffered  for  it,  that 
I  could  not  bring  myself  to  aid  or  assist  him  in  any  of  his  pursuits.  If  I 
am  wrong  in  my  supposition  that  the  tracts,  &c.,  in  question,  are  for  his 
use,  pray  let  me  know,  and  pardon  this  explosion  of  very  strong  opinions  of 
dissent  from  this  man's  sentiments  on  all  subjects. 

Yours,  dear  Sir  Bernard,  ever  faithfully, 
E,  R.  Madden. 


Dublin  Castle,  April  14th,  1871. 

My  dear  Madden, — I  honour  and  respect  your  motives.  You  are,  and 
have  ever  been  an  honest  politician,  a  staunch  patriot,  and  what  I  value 
especially,  a  kind-hearted  friend. 

Yours  sincerely, 

J.  B.  Burke,  Ulster. 


(From  Walter  Savage  Landor). 

Bath,  April  10th,  1855. 
My  dear  Sir, — I  have  detained  your  papers  to  read  them  carefully.     Do 
not  believe  me  an  enemy  to  any  man  for  his  religion.     My  earliest  friends 
and  neighbours  were  Roman  Catholics. 

*  **  •  *  *  SH  *  » 

Your  valuable  life  of  Savonarola  was  a  matter  of  deep  interest  to  me.  It 
ought  to  have  been  so.  Savonarola  and  Dante  are  the  two  Italians  I  vene- 
rate the  most,  although  I  would  rather  have  lived  with  B than  with 

either.     I  had  formerly  an  original  picture  of  Savonarola,  which  I  gave  away 
more  than  forty  years  ago.     I  stil  .possess  the  portrait  of  his  friend,  the 

Prior  of  St.  Mark's,  formerly  belonging  to  my  old  friend  Bishop  B . 

It  is  also  by  Fra.  Bartolemeo. 

Believe  me,  dear  Sii',  yours  very  cordially, 

Waltee  Savage  Landor. 


Recollections  of  P.  V.  Fitzpatrick  (the  intimate  friend  of  O'Connell)  on 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  marriage  with  the  Prince  Regent. 

Eccles-street,  3rd  April. 

My  dear  Madden,—  .  .  ,  Major  Nugent,  of  the  Irish  Brigade  in  the 
French  service,  stated  in  presence  of  my  sister  and  myself  that  he  played 
whist  with  the  priest  that  married  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert, 


I)R.    R.    R,    MADDEN.  211 


on  the  evening  of  the  marriage.  Our  recollection  is  that  the  event  took 
place  at  the  Hague,  and  that  Abbe  Campbell,  a  well-known  clergyman  of 
that  day,  was  the  celebrant.  Miss  Fitzpatrick  tells  me  that  Mr.  Errington, 
of  Kingstown,  knows  the  facts  and  the  persons  accurately.  She  thinks 
that  Mr.  Errington  contradicted  our  notion  as  to  the  Abbe  being  the  man. 
Miss  Fitzpatrick  will  try  to  get  you  the  information  through  a  mutual 
friend,  if  possible,  to-morrow.  Even  that  will  be  too  late  for  your  purpose 
so  we  must  await  your  third  edition,  which,  from  the  run  your  book  has  had 
already,  will  be  speedily  called  for,  according,  at  least,  to  the  opinion  and 
wish  of 

Yours  always  most  truly, 


P.    V.   FiTZPATjaCK, 


(From  Lord  Howard  de  Walden,  British  Ambassador  to  Belgium). 

Bruasells,  March  26th,  1852. 

My  dear  Dr.  Madden, — I  have  to-day  received  a  copy  of  your  work  on 
the  Sbriiies  and  Sepulchres,  which  I  accept  and  value  as  a  token  of  our 
past  relations,  and  of  remembrance  of  the  days  we  passed  in  Lisbon,  and 
those  sentiments  of  regard  and  esteem  which  I  have  ever  since  entertained 
towards  you.  I  had  already  had  the  work  from  one  of  my  sons,  and  havo 
read  it.  You  certainly  have  contrived  to  bring  together  an  astonishing 
mftss  of  curious  and  instructive  details,  and  to  throw  them  together  in  a 
way  to  be  read  with  great  interest ;  and  I  am  pleased  to  notice  that  you  had 
brought  in  so  well  what  I  had  seen  in  Portugal  having  reference  to  that 
country.  It  made  me  younger  by  some  years  while  I  was  going  through 
this  part.  I  shall  be  indeed  very  glad  to  meet  you  again,  and  trust  to  do  so 
if  you  go  to  Loudon  this  autumn,  as  I  expect  to  be  there  then. 

Believe  me,  ever  yours  most  sincerely, 

Howard  de  Waldbn. 


(From  F.  Prendorgast  to  Dr.  Maunsell,  editor  of  the  Dublin  Evening  Mail). 

Dear  Maunsell, — In  the  enclosed,  a  speech  of  Robert  Holmes,  which  you 
have  heard  me  say  ought  to  be  preserved,  with  other  relics  of  the  same 
class,  ])y  Dr.  Madden,  is  alluded  to. 

If  Dr.  Madden  should  publish  another  volume,  I  do  think  that  Holmes 
might  well  make  a  chapter  in  it ;  but  at  any  rate  the  speech  in  question,  for 
its  eloquence  and  force,  if  not  for  merit,  ought  to  be  recorded  somewhere. 
His  daughter's  stanzas,  "  0  Weep  not  for  the  Dead,"  are  better  poetry  than 
all  the  Poet  Laureates,  and  I  am  sure  that  many,  like  myself,  must  have 
been  gratified  to  meet  them  in  Dr.  Madden's  work. 

It  is  curious  to  trace  the  Republican  Robert  Holmes's  money  purchasing 
a  coronet  for  his  granddaughter,  I^ady  Doneraile  ;  but  as  her  uncle,  Emmet, 
the  Irish  rebel,  was  only  three  removes  from  a  Cromwellian  Tipperary 
settler,  who  can  say  whether  this  old  man's  red  hot  ire  may  not  be  trans- 
mitted even  to  his  noble  descendants,  when  they  turn  their  eyes  to  his  fiery 

15  • 


212  MEMOIRS 


periods  and  hie  daughter's  pathetic  lines,  and  whether  they  too  may  not  feel 
that  they  are  Hibernian  born  and  hereditarily  pledged  to  the  cause  of  country, 
to  use  Holmes's  expression.  But  you  have  not  time  to  attend  to  such 
musings. 

Yours  truly, 

Francis  Prendergast. 


(From  Sir  James  Stephens,  on  the  Crimean  War). 

Wcstbourne  Terrace,  London, 
22nd  July  1854.  - 

My  dear  Dr.  Madden, — I  am  inclined  to  think  that  Milesian  was  never 
worse  used  by  Saxon  than  you  by  me,  and  that,  you  know,  is  saying  a  good 
deal.  In  deep  humility  and  repentance,  then,  I  plead  guilty  to  the  offences 
of  having  detained  your  books  unreasonably  long,  and  of  having  left  your 
inquiry  unanswered. 

I  much  doubt  whether  the  danger  which  has  evoked,  and  what  is  supposed 
to  justify,  the  war,  was  a  danger  of  much  magnitude  or  urgency,  and  I 
abhor  this  bloodshedding  as  much  as  yourself.  I  suspect  that  the  Czar 
Nicholas  might  prove  a  far  less  troublesome  neighbour  than  Louis  Napoleon. 
He  has  at  this  moment  Rome,  Athens,  Constantinople,  and  Jerusalem  in 
his  grasp,  and  will  scarcely  let  them  go  when  the  war  is  over.  But  one  is 
hurried  on  with  the  current  of  events,  like  a  moth  feeding  on  the  lining  of  a 
railway  carriage  on  an  express  train,  and  as  little  able  to  arrest  them. 

Meanwhile,  both  you  and  I  have,  by  God's  mercy,  the  direction  of  our  pens. 
Mine  is  engaged  in  illustrating  ecclesiastical  biography  from  the  history  of 
France,  for  the  edification  of  my  pupils.  Yours  might  be  most  profitably 
employed  in  a  selection  from  the of  well  authenticated  brief  narra- 
tives. Nothing  could  be  made  more  interesting,  as  nothing  is  less  generally 
known.  The  old  writers  were  too  often  destitute  of  historical  accuracy. 
The  modern  writers  are  controversial,  and  provoke  their  readers  to  quarrel 
instead  of  winning  them  to  read,  and  to  be  wiser.  Your  own  Savonarola  is 
admirable,  but  rather  a  history  than  a  biography,  and  nobody,  as  far  as  I 
know,  has  ever  found  out  the  art  of  combining  together  the  merits  of 
the  two  styles.  I  suspect  that  such  a  combination  is  impossible.  Then 
comes  in  the  way  that  hateful  spirit  of  discord  which  would  prevent  the 
acceptance  of  a  Roman  Catholic  biogi-aphical  history  if  Bossuet  himself 
were  living  amongst  us  to  write  it.  But  a  mere  failure  ....  written 
on  the  hj^pothesis  (the  very  unfounded  hypothesis,  it  is  true),  that  your 
readers  could  supply  the  history  for  themselves,  ought  to  draw  tears  from 
the  eyes  of  those  who  read  it,  bring  blushes  to  their  cheeks,  and  make  them 
throw  out  their  hands  to  shake  hands  with  the  biographer.  The  newspapers 
say  that  you  are  to  have  H.  Newman  among  you  as  head  of  your  new  college 
— an  excellent  choice  if  learning,  ability,  vigour  of  mind,  and  exquisite 
power  of  language  were  the  only  essential  qualifications. 

How  I  should  rejoice  to  see  you  again. 

Yours  always  most  truly, 

James  Stephens. 


DR.    R.    R     MADDEN.  213 


(From  Thomas  Davis,  on  Dr.   iM  adden's  work,  The  Connexion  of  Ireland 
xcith  the  Croivn  of  England). 

31st  March. 

My  dear  Madden, — Among  the  essays  was  one  which,  from  the  informa- 
tion in  it,  and  from  its  appendix,  I  knew  must  be  yours.  The  judges  were 
unanimous  in  thinking  tlie  style  amongst  the  best ;  we  also  felt  that  publica- 
tion of  the  appendix  would  be  important,  and  the  whole  work  would  be 
most  interesting.  I  have  been  requested  by  the  General  Committee  to  write 
to  the  author  of  the  essay  to  know  if  he  contemplated  publishing  it — can 
you  answer  my  question  ?  If  published,  they  would  recommend  the  purchase 
of  a  large  number  of  copies  for  the  Association.  As  to  other  matters  you 
know  enough  from  the  papers  without  my  aid.  Suffice  it  that  education  is 
increasing  in  countless  ways,  the  literary  conservatives  becoming  quite 
national.  The  bigotry  excited  by  the  Bequests  Bill  has  ceased  ;  there  is 
more  cordiality  in  our  own  councils  than  at  any  time  these  two  years.  Of 
course  there  are  great  difficulties  and  dangers  even  in  this  our  legal  effort 
for  local  institutions— but  we  are  men. 

Ever  yours  most  sincerely, 
T.  Davis. 


(From  Dr.  Petrie,  the  Irish  Antiquarian). 

Dublin,  aOth  March  1865. 

My  dear  Dr.  Madden,— The  poem  you  allude  to,  and  which  I  also  consider 
ns  one  of  great  beauty,  was  written  for  me  by  one  of  my  oldest  and  dearest 
friends, — a  friend  of  sixty  years  standing,  whom  I  have  venerated  for  his 
varied  acquirements,  and  loved  for  his  virtues.  He  is  the  Eev.  .J.  Wills, 
brother  of  the  Wills  of  Willsbrook,  in  the  county  of  Roscommon,  and  is  at 
present  Rector  of  a  parish  in  the  county  of  Wicklow.  You  will  find  many 
other  short  poems  of  his  in  the  same  volume  with  the  Irish  music.  I  think 
they  are  all  more  or  less  beautiful ;  but  there  is  one  of  them  to  which  I  par- 
ticularly wish  to  draw  your  attention.  It  will  be  found  at  p.  Ii50.  This 
article,  both  prose  and  poem, — O'Connellan^s  Harp — is  Dr.  Wills' ;  the 
prose  prefixed  to  Irish  Music  a  hasty  scribble  of  mine.  The  Ode  to 
the  Minstrely  O'Connellan,  in  the  same  article,  which  is  wholly  Wills', 
may  be  considered  as  a  companion  to  that  other  one,  Irish  Music,  and  in 
my  humble  opinion,  it  is  a  worthy  companion  to  it.  Wills  has  written  much, 
and  well  ;  yet  he  is  little  known  to  the  public  as  a  writer,  and  this  chiefly,  if 
not  wholly,  by  his  Lives  of  Illustrious  Irishmen. 

One  of  his  poems  had  this  amount  of  success  :  it  put  £500  into  the  pocket 
of  Maturin,  when  that  unfortunate  man  of  genius  was  hard  up,  but  not 
a  single  farthing  into  the  pocket  of  its  author.  The  poem  was  entitled 
The  Universe  a  rather  extensive  subject.  You  will  find  extracts  in  the 
Dublin  journals. 

With  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Madden, 

I  remain,  my  dear  Dr.  Madden,  yours  most  faithfully, 
George  Petrie. 


214  MEMOIKS 


(From  John  O'Donovan,  the  Celtic  scholar). 

February  27th,  1856. 

My  dear  Friend, — I  do  not  feel  well  enough  to  venture  out  under  the  night 
air  this  evening.  Our  friend  Daniel  MacCarthy  lodges  at  Garville,  Rathgar. 
I  have  not  heard  from  him  for  some  days  ;  fear  that  he  is  not  well,  and 
would  feel  very  much  obliged  if  you  could  make  time  to  see  him  and  give 
your  opinion  on  the  state  of  his  health.  He  is  a  very  worthy  gentleman, 
who  has  the  heart  in  the  right  place. 

Our  neighbours, the  prophets,  seem  to  think  that  I  am 

the  critic  who  condemned  their  work.  The  Protestant  followers  of  St. 
Columba  will  attack  them  more  efficiently  than  any  papist,  for  it  does  not 
require  any  great  skill  in  prophetic  lore  to  see  through  the  very  silly  charac- 
ter of  their  works. 

JMy  cough  is  getting  worse  and  worse  every  year,  and  I  am  now  beginning 
to  think  that  it  will  carry  me  off  to  my  native  home  before  I  reach  the  age 
of  half  a  century.  If  I  live  to  finish  the  Brehon  Laxos  I  ought  to  be  satisfied  ; 
but  I  feel  all  the  frigidity  of  old  age  and  its  concomitant  indifference  to 
what  heretofore  delighted  me,  gradually  stealing  upon  me,  so  that  I  fear 
that  a  few  short  half  years  more  will  see  me  in  Glasnevin. 

Hoping  that  your  son  is  doing  well,  and  wishing  you  all  many  years  of 
happiness, 

I  remain,  my  very  good  friend,  yours  ever  sincerely, 

John  O'Donovan. 


(From  Henry  Grattan,  junr.) 

Rue  Haute  Plante,  No.  8,  Tau,  France, 

Saturday,  26th,  1859. 

My  dear  Sir, — Many  thanks  for  your  letter.  I  am  sure  that  a  subscrip- 
tion can  be  set  on  foot  for  any  relation  of  Curran.  The  publication  by  Ross 
of  the  Cornwallis  papers  was  ill-judged,  ill-timed,  and  will  do  much  mischief. 
There  are  parts,  I  think,  that  may  be  answered.  I  do  not  mean  with  any 
reference  to  the  Freeman's  Journal,  but  with  regard  to  the  debates  on  the 
reply  of  Lord  Castlereagh.  If  there  is  spirit  in  the  Irish  they  would  not 
sleep  over  such  a  tissue  of  infamy  and  audacity.  Surely  if  the  Barons  who 
obtained  the  great  Charter  are  to  be  held  in  everlasting  remembrance,  tbose 
men  who  destroyed  it  should  be  held  in  everlasting  execration.  Bad  deeds 
should  be  equally  detested.  The  pubhcation  of  Ross'  work  must  produce  in 
Ireland  deserved  retaliation — "  semper  ego  auditor  tantum."  At  the  same 
lime,  I  fear  the  dormant  spirit  in  Ireland  is  too  easily  roused,  and  so  com- 
pletely ineffectual  that  it  will  be  in  vain  to  expect  from  it  any  national  per- 
manent utility  ;  but  although  injuries  may  be  atoned  for,  insults  admit  of 
no  compensation. 

I  think  every  search  should  be  made  to  ascertain  who  betrayed  Lord 
Edward  :  it  will  serve  to  show  that  even  the  leaders  most  looked  up  to  and 
most  prized  are  not  safe.  How,  then,  can  those  below  hope  to  escape?  and 
this  may  further  deter  men  now  from  joining-  a  tissue  of  folly  will  not  aid 
their  country. 


DR.    E.    R.    MM>DEN.  216 


I  have  to  return  you  many  thanks  for  your  suggestions  as  to  Malaga,  but 
I  think  the  cHmate  of  Pau  suits  my  invalid,  and  I  trust  I  shall  return  with 
her  in  a  better  state  of  health  than  when  she  left  Ireland. 

I  renain,  dear  Sir,  yours  very  truly, 

Henry  Grattan. 


(From  Thomas  O'Hagan). 

Eutland-square,  10th  June  1870. 

My  dear  Madden, — Many  thanks  for  your  most  kind  letters.  It  is  pleasant 

indeed  to  hear  good  news  from  a  friend  so  honoured  and  so  true 

Always  yours, 

Thomas  O'Hagan. 


(From  John  P.  Prendergast). 

September  2-2nd,  1864. 

My  dear  Sir,— Many  thanks  for  your  lines,  which  are  very  good,  and 
stinging  towards  the  conclusion. 

There  will  be  bad  work  yet  out  of  all  this,  I  fear.  The  Orangemen  have 
been  so  long  above  the  law  that  I  do  not  tliink  they  will  submit  to  be  dis- 
armed, and  if  they  are  not  disarmed,  and  if  the  "  Irish"  are  not  allowed  to 
be  armed,  nothing  is  done. 

I  thought  I  had  given  the  place  of  deposit  of  the  Commonwealth  orders 
about  the  Waterford  Printing  Press.  The  books  of  the  Council  for  the 
Affairs  of  Ireland,  from  which  they  are  quoted,  are  in  the  Record  Tower, 
Dublin  Castle,  in  IMS.  You  will  find  in  Harris'  Ilibernica,  the  preface  to  the 
third  part  of  which  consists  of  two  treatises  concerning  the  power  of  the 
Parliament  of  England  to  make  laws  for  Ireland,  that  the  case  of  Tenures, 
which  contains  the  argument  of  Patrick  Darcy  in  1637  against   Strafford's 

proceedings,  was  printed  at  Waterford  by  Thomas  B .Printer to  the 

Confederate  Catholics  of  Ireland,  in  164:3;  4to.     Preface  p.  I  in  it. 

Cromwell's  celebrated  answer  to  the  Clonmacnoise  Manifesto  of  the  Irish 
Bishops  and  clergy  was  printed  at  Cork  in  1643,  and  re-printed  in  London, 
March  21st,  1643-50.    We  have  the  Cork  edition. 

Yours  most  truly, 

John  P.  Prendergast. 


(Letter  from  the  Dowager  Marchioness  of  Normanby  to  R,  R.  Madden, 
25th  August  1863,  in  vindication  of  the  memory  of  the  late  Marquis). 

Hamilton  Lodge,  0  Kensington  Green, 
25th  August  1863. 

Lady  Normanby  presents  her  compliments  to  Dr.  Madden.  The  letter 
he  addressed  to  her  son  was  forwarded  to  her.  She  opened  it,  think- 
ing it  might  have  been  meant  for  her  dear  and  lamented  husband.    Her  son 


216  MEMOIRS 


has  not  yet  returned  to  England,  and  therefore  Lady  Normanby  hopes  Dr. 
Madden  will  excuse  her  writing  to  thank  him  for  the  kind  and  true  estimate 
he  formed  of  Lord  Normanby's  character  and  principles,  which  he  main- 
tained and  expressed  to  the  last  day  of  his  life.  Lady  Normanby  knows  the 
value  Lord  Normanby  always  set  on  Dr.  Madden's  opinion,  which  makes 
this  testimony  the  more  grateful  to  her,  and  she  must  again  beg  Dr.  Madden 
to  excuse  this  letter  and  accept  her  heartfelt  thanks.* 


"  I  have  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  intentions  and  views  of  Lord 
Mulgrave  when  he  entered  on  the  office  of  Viceroy  of  Ireland.  They  were 
to  these  ends :  '  To  deal  with  Ireland  as  if  it  was  an  English  county — fairly 
and  impartially  ;  to  know  of  no  anomalies  in  itM  condition  that  necessitated 
one  rule  of  right  and  one  line  of  policy  when  dealing  with  its  people,  and 
another  when  legislating  for  or  ruling  over  the  people  of  England;  to 
administer  the  laws  in  a  spirit  of  equal  justice  over  all  the  King  of  England's 
subjects  in  Ireland  ;  to  make  the  magistracy  respected,  to  keep  it  respectable, 
and  with  this  view,  to  remove  from  it  all  persons  unfit  for  the  bench — men 
of  bad  repute,  of  extreme  opinions,  of  violent  courses,  zealots,  and  parti- 
sans of  factions  who  traded  in  politics  or  polemics ;  to  make  no  distinction 
between  candidates  for  offices  under  Government  on  account  or  pretence  of 
religion ;  to  discountenance  the  practice  of  packing  juries  and  perverting 
the  administration  of  justice  for  any  purpose  whatsoever ;  in  fine,  to  carry  on 
the  government  of  Ireland  so  as  to  render  English  rule  reverenced  and 
loved,  and  not  feared  only  in  Ireland.'  "* 


Extract  from  a  letter  of  the   Marquis  of  Normanby,   of  the  10th 
June  1863,  to  Dr.  ]\1.) 

"In  your  statement  of  my  views  of  the  principles  on  which  the  govern- 
ment of  Ireland  should  be  administered,  and  was  administered  by  me,  I  see 
not  one  word  to  alter ;  and  at  th*  expiration  now  of  twenty-eight  years,  I 
can  see  no  reason  to  wish  one  word  unsaid  of  what  was  then  professed  to 
be  right  principles  of  government.  Can  all  the  surviving  members  of  Lord 
Melbourne's  administration  say  so  much  now  ?  " 


(Letter  from  His  Grace  the  [late  Primate  of  Armagh,  the  Moat  Rev.  Dr. 
Dixon,  to  R.  E.  Madden,  on  the  death  of  the  Marquis  of  Normanby). 

Armagh,  August  26th,  1863. 
Dear  Sir,—  I  regret  that  my  absence  from  Armagh  has  occasioned  delay 
in  answering  your  letter  of  the  22nd  inst.     As  regards  the  subject  of  which 
you  call  my  attention,  I  am  persuaded  that  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  ex- 
aggerate the  claims  of  the  late  Marquis  of  Normanby  on  the  gratitude  of 

*  The  views  of  the  Marquis  of  Normanby,  with  whom  Dr.  Madden  was  intimately 
acquainted,  on  the  Government  of  Ireland,  are  thus  referred  to  in  the  latter's  work  on 
QallUo  and  the  Inquisition,  aa  stated  to  the  author  l)y  that  nobleman  on  entering  on  the 
duties  of  Viceroy  of  this  country  in  1835. 


DR.    n.    R,    MADDKN. 


217 


the  people  of  this  country.  I  remember  well  how,  during  the  period  of  his 
office  here  as  Viceroy,  those  who  were  the  best  exponents  of  the  true  senti- 
ments of  the  Irish  people,  were  the  admiration  of  the  able  and  impartial  manner 
in  which  he  administered  the  high  trust  confided  to  him— the  good  example 
which  he  left  for  those  who  will  come  after  him,  have  inscribed  his  name  on 
the  record  of  the  illustrious  benefactors  of  this  country.  His  recall  from 
Ireland  was  justly  considered  at  the  time  a  national  calamity.  13utoiir 
Catholic  people  rejoiced  in  latter  years  to  know  that  the  illustrious  noble- 
man having  brought  with  him  to  Italy  admirable  qualities  of  head  and 
heart  for  which  he  was  admired  and  loved  in  Ireland,  was  enabled  to  see 
through  the  low  hypocrisy  as  well  as  the  unblushing  villany  that  have 
triumphed  in  that  unhappy  land,  and  was  not  afraid  to  declare  himself  on 
all  occasions  the  uncompromising  enemy  of  a  state  of  things  brought  about 
bv  such  vile  agencies.  ,  ,   •  i. 

For  my  own  part,  the  news  of  his  death  was  to  me  the  source  of  smcerest 
sorrow,   and  I  am  sure  I  may  say  the  same  for  my  brethren  m  the  Irish 

I  remain,  dear  Sir,  your  very  faithful  servant, 

^  Joseph  Dixon. 
R.  R.  Madden,  Esq. 


(From  Lady  Wilde). 

My  dear  Sir,— I  have  received  your  two  beautiful  volumes  with  the  greatest 
pleasure  and  gratitude,  and  it  was  kind  of  you  to  mention  me  in  such 
flattering  terms  for  the  very  shght  service  I  was  fortunate  to  render  yo^i-  ^ 
is  indeed  a  high  honour  for  mo  to  be  connected  in  any  way  with  so  valuable 
an  addition  to  our  literature.  The  work  seems  full  of  interest.  Of  course, 
as  yet,  I  have  only  made  that  delightful  impatient  rush  over  its  contents 
which  a  new  book  of  such  an  order  is  sure  to  excite  ;  but  I  can  see  that  it 
is  full  of  romantic  as  well  as  heroic  interest.  I  also  came  upon  some  verses 
admirably  rendered  by  yourself.  You  have  done  well  to  give  all  the  originals, 
they  are  among  the  sweetest  verses  I  have  ever  read  in  the  Italian,  like  what 
Carlo  Dolce  is  to  painting.  I  must  admire,  too.  the  form  in  which  the  work 
is  brought  out,  for  I  like  a  pleasing  exterior  even  in  a  book,  and  everything 
about  yours  makes  it  quite  tempting  to  open.  I  anticipate  the  greatest 
pleasure  from  the  perusal ;  perhaps  it  will  light  up  some  of  the  old  heroic 
fire  in  my  heart,  dead  now  for  many  a  day.  You  have  chosen  a  noble  hero 
to  build  an  altar  to,  and  I  am  sure  you  have  put  your  hand  to  the  work  with 
true  sympathy  and  love. 

Farewell,  my  kind,  too  flattering  friend. 

Ever  with  esteem  and  gratitude,  yours, 

Jane  Francesca  Wilde. 
My  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Madden. 


(From  Sir  John  D.  Acton,  Bart.) 

Aldeuham  Park,  Bridgenorth. 
My  dear  Sir,— Allow  me  to  thank  you  for  yaur  note  and  its  enclosure. 
Wo  ought  to  work  well  together,  for  I  am  suffering  from  the  same  malady. 
I  have  collected  nearly  three  thousand  volumes  on  Italian  history.    I  do 


218  MEMOIRS 


not  think  the  principles  you  lay  down  for  the  treatment  of  modern  history 
can  in  any  way  clash  with  my  own.  One  should  always  have  before  one's 
eyes  a  vision  of  a  .  .  .  .  examining  one's  use  of  authorities,  and  ready 
to  expose  whatever  is  not  straightforward. 

We  must  not  forget  a  very  different  tribunal,  where  every  written  and 
spoken  word  will  be  judged. 

I  remain,  dear  Sir,  yours  truly, 


J.  D.  Acton. 


(From  Denis  Florence  M'Carthy). 

Summerfield,  Friday,  December  3rd,  1803. 
My  dear  Madden, — This  Oriental  flight  is  too  much  for  me.  Let  me,  in 
plain  Western  prose,  say  how  sorry  I  am  to  hear  of  your  cold.  I  trust, 
however,  it  may  be  better  by  Sunday,  and  that  you  may  be  able  to  come  to 
us  after  all.  I  am  myself  nearly  in  the  condition  you  describe.  O'Hagan 
will  be  disappointed  at  not  meeting  you,  as  I  ventured  to  almost  promise 
that  you  would  be  with  us.     Thanks  for  your  Knights. 

Ever  yours, 
Denis  Florence  M'Carthy. 


(From  Sir  Bernard  Burke). 

Dublin  Castle,  November  19th,  1870. 

My  dear  Madden, — You  are  always  my  kind  friend,  and  always  ready  with 
information.  Could  you  some  spare  moment  put  on  paper  for  me  a  list  of 
such  printed  books  as  would  assist  in  the  compilation  of  a  history  of 
Ireland  under  the  Penal  Laws  ? 

I  intend  this  next  month  to  present  you  with  a  copy  of  my  Peerage  and 
Baronetage,  which  will,  I  fancy,  be  acceptable.  It  is  quite  a  re-modelled 
edition. 

Yours  ever, 

J.  Bernard  Burke  (Ulster). 


(From  the  Kev.  Dr.  Miley). 

Metropolitan  Church,  Dublin, 
February  7th,  1844, 
My  dear  Dr.  Madden,— I  should  be,  in  common  with  all  true  hearted 
Irishmen,  deeply  indebted  to  you  for  your  letter.  It  was  of  the  greatest 
service,  and  was  spoken  of  by  everyone  that  I  heard  mention  it  in  terms  of 
praise.  ^  .  .  .  Depend  upon  it,  our  agitation  has  made  itself  felt  in 
more  quarters  than  one.  There  has  been  some,  and  not  a  little,  display  and 
prompt  energy  in  following  up  the  word  by  the  blow. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  219 


You  will  be  surprised  that  on  the  subject  of  Maynooth  I  hesitate  to 
agree  with  jou.  Are  you  aware  that  Ihe  project  formed  by  .  ... 
relative  to  an  establishment  for  ecclesiastical  education,  was  of  a  nature  cal- 
culated to  ruin  religion?  that  the  interference  of  the  then  Government  was 
obviously  providential  though  anything  but  Avell  intended,  and  left  the  insti- 
tution perfectly  free  from  anything  like  undue  interference. 

We  were  much  alarmed  about  your  illness,  but  now  I  trust  all  danger  and 
apprehension  is  long  past.  I  forgot  to  ask  how  Mrs.  Madden  and  the  young 
aspirant  after  martial  glory  are.  Remember  me  to  Mrs.  Madden  in  the 
kindest  manner,  and  to  Forde  when  you  see  him  next ;  but  say  to  Sir 
Thomas  I  had  rather  see  him  encounter  the  same  risks  his  great  namesake 
did,  either  in  the  career  of  the  law  or  the  gospel. 


I  am,  dear  Dr.  Madden,  ever  faithfully  yours, 

T.   MiLEY. 


(From  William  B.  M'Cabe). 

29,  Upper  Belgrave-place,  London, 
December  18th,  1847. 

My  dear  Doctor, — I  never  felt  more  pleased  in  my  life  than  on  receiving 
your  most  welcome  letter  this  morning,  for  I  can  truly  say  I  have  never  felt 
a  strong  gale  of  wind  blowing  upon  me  that  I  did  not  think  of  you,  poor 
dear  Mrs.  Madden,  and  the  boy,  and  hoping  that  you  were  well  and  safe,  and 
out  of  reach  of  it,  or  if  not,  tumbling  in  thought  with  you  on  the  rough  sea, 
and  shrinking  with  you  in  the  cold  cabin,  which  must  be  dark  and  gloomy 
enough,  and  wishing  I  had  you  all  back  again,  and  listening  to  Tom's 
laugh,  and  looking  at  Mrs.  Madden's  quiet  gentle  smile,  and  joining  with 
you  in  railing  against  a  wicked,  nasty,  scheming,  plotting,  insincere  world. 
Doctor,  we  are  not  relatives,  but  excepting  Forde  and  your  sister,  I  doubt  if 
you  have  one  relation  in  the  world  who  has  thought  of  you  and  yours  so 
much  since  we  parted  as  myself.  You  must  know  that,  until  we  see  each 
other  again,  I  have  laid  down  a  rule  that  every  Sunday  after  dinner  your 
healths  are  to  be  drunk  here.  I  will  propose  them,  others  drink  them  ;  and 
this  I  do  in  order  that  you  may  say,  as  each  Sunday  comes  round,  "  Well, 
though  M'Cabe  thinks  much  of  me,  I  am  sure,  this  is  a  day  I  am  positive 
he  is  talking  of  me  to  others  ;  "  and  then  Upper  Belgrave-place  will  rise  to 
your  mind,  and  we  shall  be  in  spirit  together. 

You  will  find  by  The  News  of  the  World  of  this  day  that  I  have  referred 
to  you — that  I  make  you  plead  to  save  our  unfortunate  country  from  the  spy 

system,  the  re-organization  of  which has  commenced,  and  for 

which  I  gave  him  the  benefit  again  of  his  letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  H ,  of 

Roscrea. 

Your  book  makes  a  very  pretty  volume,  and  a  copy  or  copies  have  been 
sent  to  the  Portsmouth  agents  by  Richardson,  Need  J  tell  you  how  proud 
[  am  of  the  dedication  to  myself.  When  the  proof  was  sent  to  me  I  took 
care  that  I  should  not  be  mistaken  for  my  fetch.  I  am  working  as  hard  to 
have  the  book  noticed  as  if  it  were  my  own.  I  hope  before  you  go  you  may 
be  able  to  receive  the  Dublin  Revieiv  with  my  article  on  it.  The  Revieio  for 
the  April  number  is  already  in  the  hands  of  Richardson. 


220 


MEMOIRS 


As   to  myself,    I  have  nothing    to  do    with   the 


has  got  an  interest  in  it.  He  is  a  convert,  and  one  of  those  who,  in 
assuming  the  dove-like  simplicity  of  our  faith,  has  carried  into  it  the  wisdom 
of  the  serpent,  to  be  found  in  the  creed  he  abandoned.  It  is  very  probable 
that  this  affair  will  for  the  remainder  of  my  life  put  me  out  of  Catholic 
politics.  It  must  be  not  merely  a  tempting  offer  that  can  possibly  induce  me 
again  to  touch  them.     .     .     . 

The  Irish  Catholic  Magazine  is  placed  in  the  handsof  Professor  Kelly 
and  Dr.  Croke  of  Maynooth.  Duffy  has  asked  me  to  write  for  it.  If  I  do, 
it  will  be  a  series  of  papers  entitled  "  The  recollections  of  an  Irish  Parlia- 
mentary Reporter", — in  fact,  a  sort  of  autobiographer.  Duffy  tells  me  my 
book  is  selling  Avell  in  Dublin.     .     .     . 

And  now,  my  dear  Doctor,  with  the  assurance  that  all  here  are  well,  you 
have  all  the  news.     A  thousand  loves  from  all  to  yourself,  to  Mrs.  Madden, 


and  Thomasino. 


Ever  your  devoted  friend, 

William  B.  M'Cabe. 


(From  Dr.  WilUam  Beattie). 

Rose  Villa,  Hampstead, 

November  15th,  1844. 

My  dear  Madden, — Two  months  absence  from  home,  and  a  rather  severe 
attack  of  illness,  has  greatly  interrupted  my  correspondence  ;  but  indeed  it 
was  not  until  I  received  a  note  from  you  awaiting  my  return  that  I  could 
obtain  the  least  clue  to  your  address,  shortly  before  the  death  of  Campbell 
I  wrote  to Avho  promised  to  procure  the  information  for  me,  but  being  sud- 
denly called  to  Boulogne,  I  heard  nothing  more  of  it.  On  the  death  of  the 
poet  I  felt  exceedingly  anxious  to  communicate  with  you.  I  wrote  to  my 
young  friend  at  Versailles  from  Boulogne,  but  great  delay  having  been  caused 
by  some  error  in  my  address,  I  did  not  receive  his  reply  until  my  return 
liome,  where  a  mountain  of  letters  and  papers  awaited  me,  and  I  take  the 
earliest  opportunity  of  giving  you  this  frank  explanation  of  my  negligence. 
You  may  imagine  how  much  I  have  missed  your  friendly  service  and  sympa- 
thy under  the  painful  duties  that  have  lately  fallen  to  my  lot.  I  was  with 
Campbell  during  the  last  days  and  nights  of  his  earthly  pilgrimage.  Never  can 
it  be  eradicated  from  my  mind  what  I  heard  and  saw  during  that  momentous 
period.  Yours  was  among  the  last  names  that  caught  his  attention.  In 
looking  over  his  payers  I  find  allusions  to  you,  and  correspondence  contain- 
ing your  criticisms  upon  some  poems  of  his.  I  would  like  to  publish  his 
memoirs.  I  have  no  doubt  you  would  find  honourable  mention  of  yourself 
in  them.  You  can  hardly  imagine  his  gratitude  on  seeing  me  unexpectedly 
at  Boulogne  ;  strange  as  itmay  appear,  I  bad  no  intimation  from  the  attendant 
physician  of  the  precarious  state  in  which  the  poet  then  lay.  I  know  you 
loved  the  poet,  and  that  this  was  mutual.  I  send  you  a  memorial  presented 
only  to  the  personal  friends  of  the  Bard.  It  is  a  true  picture,  and  you  will 
not  read  it  without  emotion. 

Ever,  believe  me,  most  truly  yours, 
W.  Beattie. 


tm.     R.     R.     MADDEN.  221 


13,  Upper  Berkley-street. 

My  ever  dear  Friend, — How  can  I  sufficiently  thank  you  for  your  kind 
letter.  It  came  at  the  right  time,  and  acted  as  a  powerful  restorative  to  me 
without  one  drop  of  bitter  flavour,  and  from  what  you  advise,  it  is  very  clear 
our  thoughts  had  been  running  m  the  same  channel.  We  find  our  sage 
iipprebensions  were  pure  imaginations.  Such  is  life,  I  quite  agree  with  you 
in  all  you  say  regarding  our  duties  and  our  doings,  and  the  contrast  they 
present  in  the  lives  of  the  best  men.  But  henceforth  nothing  seems  to  ob- 
struct my  vision, — I  will  try  to  look  through  it,  to  the  sunshine.  The  very 
shadows  are  a  proof  of  sunshine,  and  the  brighter  the  sun  the  darker  the 
shade.  Painters  and  poets  know  this.  So  in  the  moral  world.  But  here  I 
finish,  as  I  may  get  beyond  my  depth.  I  leave  the  subject  in  better  hands 
— i.e.,  in  yours.  I  wish  indeed  I  could  visit  Dublin  this  autumn  and  intlict 
my  tediousness  on  you  for  a  whole  month.  Under  such  ciroumstances  you 
might  expect  to  find  that  your  days  and  evenings  were  more  than  usually 
lengthened.  I  am  thankful  to  say  that  after  a  dangerous  illness  my  good 
sister  is  out  again,  though  1  much  fear  she  will  never  entirely  recover  her 
strength,  but  even  this  is  more  than  we  at  the  time  expected.  It  was  a  long 
and  anxious  time — nearly  four  months.  But  now  I  must  turn  to  the  business 
matters  of  the  day  more  abruptly  than  I  intended  to  have  done,  but  there  is 
no  help  for  it. 

With  best  wishes  to  Mrs.  Madden, 

Ever,  believe  me,  most  trtJy  yours, 
AV,  Beattie, 


Christmas  Day,  1870, 
3,  Vernon  Terrace,  Booterstown. 

My  dear  Beattie, — The  Day  of  Gladness  all  over  the  Christian  world  must 
not  pass  without  a  few  lines  to  my  dear  friend,  wishing  all  manner  of  God's 
blessings,  good  things,  spiritual  and  temporal,  and  glad  tidings.  Of  me  and 
mine  I  have  none  other  to  give,  Deo  Gratias,  but  what  are  good.  I  did  indeed 
hear  long  before  I  wrote  to  you,  sending  those  lines  which  poorly  expressed 
my  sentiments  as  to  the  only  true  source  of  consolation  in  afflictions  of  all 
kinds,  of  this  heavy  loss  you  met  with  in  that  unfortunate  company,  but  I 
could  not  bring  myself  to  write  about  it.  But  I  knew  you  understand  the 
motive  I  had  in  view  in  addressing  those  lines  to  you.     .     .     . 

I  did  not  forget  that  I  had  seen  a  copy  of  Thomas  a  Kempis'  great  book 
with  you,  and  that  you  wanted  to  make  a  present  of  it  to  me,  and  that  I  de- 
clined to  accept  it :  but  I  did  not  tell  you  the  reason  why  I  declined  to  take 
it.  1  will,  however,  now  tell  you  ;  and  along  with  this  disclosure,  which  I 
never  intended  to  make,  I  will  add  another,  which  I  promise  you  I  will  never 
more  refer  to.  I  refused  your  Imitation  of  Christ  because  the  idea  came 
into  my  head  that,  some  day  or  other,  perhaps  this  book  may  be  the  means 
of  bringing  Beattie  to  the  faith  of  the  author  of  that  book,  and  from  that  time 
I  think  it  was.  That  a  Sunday  never  came  that  I  assisted  at  the  Holy  Sacri- 
fice of  the  Mans,  which  a  Kempis  so  glorified  in  the  privilege  of  celebrating, 
that  I  did  not  ofiTer  up  a  prayer  that  God  in  His  mercy  might  give  you  the 
grace  of  coming  into  communion  with  the  Eoman  Cathohc  Church.  You 
will  not  be  angry  with  me  for  doing  this  ;  but  even  if  you  were  so,  it  would 
make  no  difierence,  my  dear  Beattie,  with  me.  I  would,  and  will  as  long  as 
needs  be,  continue  so  to  do  ;  and  yet  I  have  a  feeling  the  need  will  not  exist 
a  long  time,  Deo  volente* 


222  MEMOIKS 


I  referred  above  to  d  Kempis  glorjdng  in  the  privilege  of  celebrating 
the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass.  Here  are  the  words,  which  I  have  not 
time  to  copy,  but  send  you  in  print,  from  the  12th  chapter  of  the  4th 
Book,  beginning — "  Great  is  tlie  mystery,  and  great  is  the  dignity  of  priests, 
is  given  that  which  to  angels  is  not  granted." 

********* 

So  much  for  the  tenets  on  two  fundamental  doctrines  of  that  old  Tbomas 
a  Kemijis,  with  whose  rehgion,  you  tell  me,  you  have  been  long  acquainted, 
and  with  which,  God  grant,  you  will  soon  be  entirely  identified. 


In  all  sincerity,  my  dear  Beattie,  ever  yours, 
Richard  Robebt  Madden. 


To  Dr.  W.  Beattie. 


(From  R.  R.  Madden  to  William  Smith  O'Brien,  Esq.,  M.P.) 

Lisbon  8th  May  1846. 

My  dear  Sir, — Your  strenuous  efforts  against  the  detestable  Coercion 
Bill  I  most  earnestly  pray  may  be  successful.  Should  they  prove  other- 
wise, the  Repeal  Association  will  have  to  make  an  onward  movement.  It 
has  not  yet  exhausted  its  peaceful  powers  of  resistance  of  tyranny,  mani- 
fest as  the  late  Government  measure  is,  for  such  must  be  considered  this 
last  signal  violation  of  constitutional  liberty.  If  the  Association  declined 
to  advance,  and  Umited  its  opposition  to  that  tyranny  to  such  measures 
as  have  hitherto  been  put  in  operation  by  it,  then  the  Association  will 
lose  the  confidence  of  the  people,  and  it  will  not  be  in  your  power  or  in 
that  of  any  public  man  to  recover  it.  I  do  not  point  to  any  means  of 
redress  which  imply  or  necessitate  unconstitutional  action,  violence,  or 
physical  force,  Avhich  I  utterly  disapprove  of  as  essentially  wrong,  and 
every  recourse  to  which  on  former  occasions  has  proved  so  disastrous  to 
our  country.  There  are  other  and  better  means  of  resistance  to  tyranny 
even  in  more  desperate  circumstances  than  the  present.  Circum- 
stances may  arise  in  every  country  when  rent  and  taxes,  the  use  of  foreign 
manufactures,  and  the  consumption  of  exciseable  articles,  may  become 
subjects  of  all  engrossing  consideration,  and  public  virtue  and  persistent 
l^atience  and  enduring  resolution  may  become  great  themes  of  speculation. 
Tyranny  in  its  worst  forms  can  be  passively  and  effectually  resisted  where 
there  is  virtue  in  the  people  and  resolute  integrity  in  its  leaders.  If 
Ireland  be  now  bereft  of  that  small  share  of  constitutional  rights  which 
belong  to  her,  your  Association,  though  unnamed  in  the  odious  Act  in 
question,  will  be  sliorn  of  its  strength — its  orj^ar.ization  in  the  country 
will  be  at  an  end — it  will  drag  on  a  sickly  existence  for  some  months, 
and  then  will  fall  to  the  ground  like  the  Volunteer  movement  after  the 
Convention  Act,  and  leave  nothing  behind  but  a  memory  of  great  things 
expected  of  it  and  left  undone. 

I  am,  my  dear  sir,  yours  ever  faithfully, 
R.  R.  Madden. 


DR.    H.    R.    MADDEN. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

AFPOIN'iED    COLONIAL    SECRETARY    OF    WESTERN    AUSTRALIA    IN    1847. 

To  resume  the  course  of  this  memoir,  in  November  1847,  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Madden,  with  their  younger  son,  embarked  for  Western 
AustraUa  at  Southampton.  Nevertheless,  the  voyage  did  not  com- 
mence until  nearly  a  month  later,  whilst  from  stress  of  weather 
the  ship  lay  off  the  Isle  of  Wight. 

(Lines  written  oft'  Ryde,  21st  December  1847). 

Hiding  in  the  roads  oft'  Ryde  we  He, 

And  you  lie,  too,  if  you  deny 

'Tis  pleasanter  by  far  to  ride  on  land, 

To  roll  in  the  'bus  along  the  Strand, 

Or  any  other  kind  of  coach,  except  a  hearse, 

To  which  most  people  are  very  much  averse 

To  ride  inside,  in  a  horizontal  way, 

To  Kensall  Green,  however  fine  the  day. 

I  love  to  roll  o'er  the  rattling  stones 
In  a  hansom  cab  that  shakes  one's  bones ; 
This  is  the  rolhng  "  what  "  suits  me. 
And  not  this  horrid  rolling  on  the  sea : 
Eowley-powley  all  day  long, 
Pitch  and  toss,  and  then  swing-swong  ; 
In  cot  or  hammock  all  night  thro', 
Sick  and  sad  and  sleepless  too. 

B.  R.  M. 

Some  extracts  from  Dr.  Madden's  journal  during  this  voyage 
may  perhaps  serve  to  exemphfy  the  difference  between  the  present 
and  former  mode  of  connnunication  with  the  Antipodes. — 

"  Embarked  on  board  the  Orient  for  Western  Australia,  at  Cowes, 
on  Saturday,  the  27th  November  1847,  (Captain  Norris).  Fifty 
boys  from  Park  hurst,  under  sentence  of  transportation,  with  con- 
ditional pardons  on  arrival,  came  on  board  at  Cowes  singing  "God 
Save  the  Queen."  When  the  Governor,  Captain  KeUs,  came  on 
board,  the  influence  of  his  admirable  administration  of  the  Peni- 
tentiary Avas  apparent  in  the  affecting  parting  scenes  between  him 
and  the  boys.  Kemained  on  the  northern  bank  off  Ryde,  Isle  of 
Wight,  from  the  20t])  Nov.  to  the  14th  Dec.  at  anchor.  Sailed 
again  on  the  14th,  and  on  the  17th  put  into  Plymouth.  There  we 
remained  till  the  21st,  when  finally  we  sailed,  after  being  on  board 
25  days.     On  the  23rd,  in  the  Chops  of  the  Channel,  we  had  a 


224  MEMOIRS 


violent  gale.  In  the  Bay  of  Biscay  it  increased  and  blew  a  perfect 
tempest.  The  ship  pitched  tremendously  ;  some  of  our  best  sails 
were  spht,  and  on  the  following  day  the  gale  subsided.  I  omitted 
to  state  the  passage  money  for  self,  wife,  and  boy  under  nine,  every- 
thing included  except  wines — £150.  December  30th,  in  the  even- 
ing, we  were  in  sight  of  Madeira.  In  fact,  in  the  course  of  a  week, 
from  the  depth  of  winter  and  most  tempestuous  weather,  we  were 
launched  into  the  temperature  of  summer,  with  cloudless  skies, 
gentle  breezes  and  tropical  seas.  Here  we  are  abreast  of  the  most 
southern  of  the  Cape  de  Verdes  this  6th  of  January,  the  seven- 
teenth day  from  Plymouth.  This  is  the  shortest  passage  our 
captain,  an  old  East  India  commander,  ever  made.  Our  fifty  con- 
vict boys,  all  things  considered,  have  behaved  remarkably  well. 
There  are  some  mere  children  among  them,  and  several  weU- 
disposed  looking  boys.  Yet  all  these  lads  have  been  convicted  of  grave 
offences.  The  Superintendent  opened  their  letters  at  Plymouth. 
These  letters  were  generally  from  their  mothers.  Some  of  them 
brought  tears  to  my  eyes,  wretchedly  spelled  and  written  as  they 
were.  With  one  exception,  they  were  such  as  a  loving  mother 
might  write  to  a  beloved  child  in  any  misfortune.  Not  one  unkind 
word,  but  much  excellent  counsel,  expressed  in  terms  that  spoke  of 
religion  and  its  iniluences.  There  were  many  excuses  for  not  send- 
ing money  or  some  little  delicacies,  and  for  not  coming  to  take  leave 
of  a  dear  child ;  and  poverty  furnished  all  these  apologies.  How 
those  poor  boys  were  moved  by  these  letters.  For  my  own  part,  I 
rose  from  their  perusal  with  saddened  feelings,  with  stronger  im- 
pressions, if  that  were  possible,  of  the  depth  and  intensity  of  a 
mother's  love,  and  a  more  profound  persuasion  of  the  evils  that  are 
entailed  by  poverty,  and  the  crimes  that  society  as  it  is  constituted 
is  the  parent  of.  These  incentives  to  crime,  of  which  we  have  the 
fruits  in  the  ill-reared  and  probably  sorely  tempted  young  criminals 
on  board  the  Orient,  could  only  be  warded  off  by  early  religious 
training.  This  fact  is,  I  beheve,  incontrovertible,  and  not  the  less 
so  for  being  unpalatable  to  the  new  philosophers  of  the  system 
which  is  too  often  taught  by  the  schoolmaster  who  is  abroad 
amongst  us.   .   .   . 

"March  20th — Arrived  at  Freemantle,  89  days  from  Plymouth, 
being  the  shortest  voyage  on  record  for  a  period  of  twelve  years. 
It  has,  however,  been  done  in  82  days." 

[Here  Dr.  Madden's  journal  ends,  and  the  editor  now  merely 
retains  some  distant  recollection  of  their  arrival  in  Australia  at  the 
termination  of  that  long  voyage — the  landing  in  a  convict-manned 
whale-boat  on  the  surf-beaten  shore  at  Freemantle,  and  the  blind- 
ing glare  of  the  tropical  sun  as  reflected  from  the  white-washed 
houses  Avhich,   thinly  scattered  along  the  desert-like  sandy  coast, 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  225 


then  constituted  the  embryo  maritime  capital  of  that  since  flourish- 
ing country,] 

In  a  letter  to  his  old  friend  Sir  James  Stephens,  written  a  few 
weeks  after  his  arrival  at  Perth,  Dr.  Madden  refers  to  some  of  the 
difficulties  which  he  foresaw  before  him  in  his  new  position 
there — 

(Sir  James  Stephens,  Under-Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies). 

(Private). 

Perth,  Western  AustraHa, 

18th  April  1848. 

My  dear  Sir, — I  hope,  without  violating  any  official  rule,  I  may  avail  my- 
self of  the  privilege  of  friendship,  and  inform  you  of  my  safe  arrival  hero 
on  the  20th  of  last  month,  after  a  voyage  of  eighty-nine  days.  I  entered  on 
my  duties  as  soon  as  possible,  and  count  on  being  enabled  to  discharge 
them  elhciently,  looking  neither  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left,  but  aloft 
occasionally,  for  that  good  help  which  enables  a  man  to  surmount  all  diffi- 
culties and  impediments.  I  will  trouble  you  with  no  long  statement  of 
those  obstacles.  This  Government  has  been  for  some  time  as  a  kind  of 
patrimony  or  family  property  in  the  management  of  individuals  here,  who 
undertake  to  manage  public  affairs  so  as  to  spare  a  new  (Jovernor  too  much 
trouble,  and  prevent  his  disturbing  the  dead  repose  in  which  it  is  the 
interest  of  a  few  official  parties  to  keep  things.  That  regime,  which  has 
depressed  all  interest  and  energies  but  those  of  five  or  six  persons,  it  is  now 
sought  to  maintain.  This  I  cannot  acquiesce  in;  and  hence  I  think  right iu 
the  beginning  you  should  know  this  much  in  order,  in  the  event  of  any  repre- 
sentations heing  made  calculated  to  prejudice  me,  that  my  silence  may  not 
be  taken  for  acquiescence  in  the  justice  of  them ;  but  that  whenever  you 
think  a  defence  on  my  part  called  for,  you  will  be  good  enough  to  apprise 
me  of  that  necessity. 

Very  truly  yours, 

R.  B.  Madden. 

During  the  earlier  part  of  his  stay  in  Western  Australia,  the  office 
of  Governor  being  vacant,  on  Dr.  Madden,  as  Acting-Governor,  de- 
volved the  chief  administrative  responsibihties  of  the  Swan  River 
settlement  until  shortly  before  his  departure,  by  the  arrival  of  Gover- 
nor Fitzgerald ;  he  was  subsequently  reheved  of  a  portion  of  them. 
The  duties  of  the  acting.  Governor  and  Colonial  Secretary  were  then 
of  a  very  arduous  character,  being  comphcated  by  the  opposition  of 
the  local  authorities,  to  whom  his  humane  and  just  policy  towards 
the  hitherto  ill-treated  native  population  was  distasteful,  and  by  some 
of  whom  it  was  warmly  resented.  The  principles  which  directed  Dr. 
jVIadden  in  the  performance  of  these  duties,  and  the  spirit  in  which 
he  strove  to  fullil  these  are  evinced  in  the  following  fragment  found 
amongst  his  papers  of  that  time,  which  though  not  mtended  for 
pubhcity,  may  well  bear  the  hght. 

16 


226  MEMOIRS 


"ENTERING  ON  A  NEW  CAREER." 

"  There  are  many  things  that  might  make  a  thoughtful  man  pen- 
sive in  the  position  I  now  find  myself  placed.  A  Colonial  Secretary 
of  Western  Australia,  who  is  a  Catholic,  an  Irishman,  a  Liberal 
in  politics,  an  official  who  has  battled  with  abuses  in  other  colonies, 
and  a  bookish  man  into  the  bargain,  w^ho  has  written  works  which 
are  distasteful  to  people  who  deem  the  Penal  Laws  salutary  enact- 
ments, and  the  past  policy  of  England  towards  Ireland  a  good  one, 
is  not  likely  to  come  into  ofiice  with  much  prestige  or  many  prepos- 
sessions in  his  favour  to  secure  a  fair  stage  for  his  intentions,  or 
fair  play,  perhaps,  for  his  acts.  But  I  feel  very  little  apprehension, 
though  it  is  evident  I  will  soon  have  many  difficulties  to  meet,  jealou- 
sies to  bear  up  against,  and  formidable  interests  opposed  to  me. 
My  trust  is  not  in  myseK,  nor  in  any  friends  or  partisans,  for  I  have 
none  here.  My  entire  confidence  is  in  God.  On  entering  on  my 
duties  in  this  colony  I  commit  myself  to  His  Providence.  I  beseech 
His  goodness,  that  I  may  be  enabled  by  His  mercy  to  do  what  is 
right  and  just.  With  His  help  I  will  endeavour  to  deal  justly 
with  all  persons  ;  to  make  no  sacrifice  of  truth  or  principle  to  gain 
the  favour  of  any  man,  or  to  escape  any  censure,  slander,  or  invec- 
tive ;  to  do  my  duty  to  the  Government,  and  so  to  employ  all  my 
energies  and  faculties  as  to  promote  the  interests  of  this  colony  ;  to 
protect  the  natives,  and  never  to  lose  sight  of  the  just  claims  they 
have  on  us  for  protection,  enlightenment,  and  compensation  for 
their  lands  and  their  labours.  I  pray  to  be  so  directed  as  never  to  turn 
the  opportunities  of  office  to  the  account  of  my  private  interests  ;  nor 
any  power  it  gives  me,  to  the  detriment  of  others.  Lastly,  to  bear  in 
mind  that  I  am  very  liable  to  error,  subject  to  many  infirmities,  and 
that  it  behoves  me  to  be  watchful  over  myself,  and  very  considerate 
and  charitable  in  deahng  with  others.  Trusting  in  Thee,  my 
God,  for  all  my  guidance  and  all  my  help,  I  enter  on  the  duties  of 
this  new  office  without  fear,  presuming  only  on  Thy  sufficiency, 
and  my  hope  in  Thee,  which  has  never  failed  me  ! 

''R.  R.   M." 

At  that  time  the  Colonial  Secretary  had  abundant  occupa- 
tion in  directing  and  encouraging  the  exploration  and  develop- 
ment of  the  resources  of  the  vast  and  then  little  known  territory 
of  Western  Australia.  In  illustration  of  the  changed  condition 
and  wondrous  development  of  this  colony  since  the  period  alluded 
to,  it  may  here  be  interesting  to  refer  to  an  official  "Report  pre- 
sented to  the  Hon.  R.  R.  Madden,  Administering  the  Government 
of  Western  AustraUa,  by  the  Registrar- General  (Mr.  G.  F.  Stone), 
Oct.  10th,  1848,"  from  which  we  learn  that  the  total  population  was 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  927 


then  only  4,666,  and  of  these  1,960  belonged  to  the  aboriginal  na- 
tive tribes.  In  this  sparse  population  the  predominence  of  male 
over  female  inhabitants  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  the  number  of 
the  former  being  2.818,  whilst  the  latter  only  numbered  1,840. 
The  population  of  the  capital  of  the  colony,  Perth,  at  this  time 
was  but  1,148,  and  that  of  its  seaport,  Freemantle,  426  ; 
whilst  as  to  the  religious  profession  of  the  settlers,  it  may  be  men- 
tioned that  3,063  were  Protestants,  and  337  were  Roman  Catholics. 
Whilst  busily  occupied  with  the  duties  of  his  appointment,  and 
with  projects  for  the  development  and  advancement  of  the  colony,  an 
event  occurred  which  led  to  Dr.  Madden's  retirement  from  the 
office  of  Colonial  Secretary  of  Western  Australia.  This  was  the 
death,  in  his  nineteenth  year,  of  his  eldest  son, — William  Forde 
Madden,  a  young  civil  engineer  of  great  promise,  who  had  but  re- 
cently passed  with  distinction  through  the  Polytecnique  Engineer- 
ing College  in  Paris,  and  who  at  the  period  of  his  untimely  death  was 
engaged  in  his  first  professional  employment  under  Mr.  Mulvany, 
C.E.,  on  public  works  for  the  relief  of  distress  then  prevailing  in 
Ireland.  Whilst  thus  employed  he  was  drowned,  together  with 
another  young  engineer,  by  the  capsizing  of  a  boat  in  the  Shannon, 
near  Tarbert,  on  the  29th  of  March  1848.  The  news  of  this  cala- 
mity did  not  reach  Australia  until  many  months  subsequently,  and 
the  manner  of  its  communication  may  be  here  cited : — 

"  The   news   of  that  calamitous  day  (the  29th  of  March  1848). 

was   only  communicated   to  me months  later,  on   the 

The  vessel  that  brought  that  letter  with  the  mail  from  Singapore, 
was  wrecked  off  Freemantle,  on  the  coast  of  Western  Australia,  and 
aU  hands  on  board  w^re  lost.  The  mail,  which  was  in  a  box,  was 
washed  ashore,  and  I  went  down  from  Perth  to  look  after  the  letters, 
and  conveyed  them  thither  from  Freemantle,  little  dreaming  that 
amongst  those  thus  brought  to  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  at  Perth  was 
one  conveying  this  fatal  news." 

The  following  lines  on  this  subject  were  published  in  the  London 
Literary  Gazette — 

DIRGE.* 

Weep  for  the  dead  !  in  life's  young  morning 
Chilled  in  the  bud  and  snatched  away  ! 

While  the  star  of  hope,  his  path  adorning, 
Shone  as  the  pledge  of  ripening  day. 

Lamented  youth  !  in  thee  were  centred 
Hopes  of  a  long  and  bright  career  ; 

But  the  vision  fled,  the  spoiler  entered, 
And  thy  couch  of  fame  was  a  lowly  bier ! 

*  These  lines  were  written  by  one  of  Dr.  Madden's  dearest  friends,  the  late  Dr.  William 
Beattie  of  London  (born  1796,  obit  1875),  author  of  The  Pilyrim  in  Italy,  and  of  many  other 

exquisite  poems  and  works  of  high  literary  merit.    "  On  the  death  of  Fordo ,  a  youth 

of  the  highest  promise,  one  of  Campbell's  "  young  friends,"  drowned  in  the  River  Shannon, 
in  his  nineteenth  year."  Bee  Bcattie's  Life  and  Letters  of  Thomas  Campbell,  vol.  iii,  p.  102. 

16  * 


228  MEMOIRS 


Weep  for  the  dead  !  for  hopes  departed, 

The  father's  pride  and  mother's  joy  I 
For  youth,  for  genius,  noble  hearted — 

The  man  foretold  in  the  blooming  hoy. 
Weep  for  the  dead  1  to  him  'twas  given 

To  outstrip  the  tardy  steps  of  time  ; 
For  the  early  ripe,  the  loved  of  heaven. 

Are  still  called  home  before  their  prime. 
Weep  for  the  dead  !  but  let  not  sorrow 

On  the  faith  of  his  fathers  leave  a  stain  ! 
Look  up — look  up  to  that  glorious  morrow 

When  the  mother  shall  clasp  her  child  again. 

W.  Beattie. 

Being  <a  man  of  much  sensitiveness  of  nature,  Dr.  Madden 
was  so  prostrated  by  this  bereavement,  which  cast  its  shadow  over 
his  after  hfe,  that  he  resolved  on  returning  to  Irehind.  In  earlier 
days  the  buoyancy  of  spirits  that  had  supported  him  under  every  diffi- 
culty was  remarkable,  but  this  was  thenceforth  subdued.  Thus,  in 
the  autobiography  of  one  of  his  contemporaries,  the  late  Charles 
Mathews,  we  find  the  following  allusion  to  his  former  characteristic: — 

"  Out  of  the  many  distinguished  people  it  was  my  good  fortune 
to  associate  with,  there  were  three  who  were  my  especial  favourites, 
and  with  whom  I  kept  up  constant  companionship.  One  of  these 
was  the  witty,  lively  Dr.  Madden,  at  that  time  as  full  of  animal 
spirits  as  of  mental  endowments,  who  was  my  Fides  Achetes  on  all 
occasions."  [Matheiv's  xiutohiography,  edited  by  Dickens,  vol.  i., 
p.  10.3). 

The  appreciation  in  which  Dr.  Madden's  official  services  in  Aus- 
tralia were  held  is  attested  by  the  valedictory  addresses  with  which 
he  was  presented  : — 

(Extract  from  an  Address  of  the  inhabitants  of  Western  Australia  to  the 
Colonial   Secretary  on  his  departure  in  January  1849)  : — 

Perth,  9th  January,  1849. 

(To  the  Honourable  R.  R.  Madden). 

Sir, — We,  the  inhabitants  of  Western  Australia,  beg  to  tender  to  you  our 
warmest  thanks  for  the  zeal  and  ability  you  have  ever  displa3ed  in  further- 
ing the  real  interests  of  the  Colony,  and  for  the  liberal  and  enlightened 
principles  on  which  you  have  acted  since  your  accession  to  the  office  of 
Colonial  Secretary. 


DR.    R.    n.    MADDEN.  220 


(From  the  Perth  Gazette,  4th  January  1849). 

A  nnmerous  deputation,  headed  by  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  Brady  and  the 
Very  Rev.  Dom  Rosendo  Salvado,  waited  on  the  Hon.  the  Colonial  Secretary 
on  the  4th  of  January,  and  presented  the  following  address  to  that 
gentleman : — 

(To  the  Hon.  R.  R.  Madden,  Colonial  Secretary). 

Sir, — We,  the  undersigned  inhabitants  of  Perth  and  its  vicinity,  under- 
standing that  you  are  about  to  proceed,  in  the  Emperor  of  China,  to  Europe, 
on  leave  of  absence,  beg  leave  to  tender  our  grateful  acknowledgments  for 
the  benefits  which  your  appointment  and  efforts  were  calculated  to  confer  on 
us.  We  have  also  to  express,  in  common  with  all  the  inhabitants  of  Western 
Australia,  our  esteem  and  respect  for  yourself  and  amiable  family,  and  our 
full  sense  of  your  upright  and  impartial  conduct  in  the  discharge  of  your 
arduous  duties.  Although  your  stay  amongst  us  has  been  short,  you  have 
gained  the  confidence  of  all,  without  reference  to  sect,  party,  or  colour, 
notwithstanding  the  many  and  fireat  difficulties  you  have  had  to  contend 

with We  deeply  regret  the  cause  that  will  now  deprive  us,  at 

least  for  one  year,  of  your  invaluable  services ;  and  whilst  we  congratulate 
ourselves  and  our  fellow-colonists  upon  the  happy  change  which  you  have  been 
in  a  great  measure  instrumental  in  bringing  about,  we  cannot  conceal 
from  you  the  apprehensions  we  are  under  of  being  exposed  to  the  disadvant- 
ages which  we  had  to  complain  of  to  the  Home  Government  during  the 
former  administration  of  affairs  here.  Meanwhile  we  will  continue  to  pray 
for  the  speedy  return  of  yourself  and  family  with  renovated  health  and 
increased  prosperity.  Wishing  you  now  a  safe  and  prosperous  passage,  we 
beg  to  remain  your  obedient  humble  servants. 

The  names  of  one  hundred  and  six  persons  were  appended  to  this 
address. 

The  following  is  a  portion  of  Dr.  Madden's  reply  : — 

There  should  be  a  great  future  in  store  for  a  country  so  richly  endowed 
with  natural  resources  as  this,  I  therefore  hope  that  none  of  these  present 
contemplate  (as  I  regret  to  hear  some  settlers  do),  abandoning  the  colony 
at  the  present  turning  point  in  its  history.  I  trust  and  believe  that  it  will 
be  found  feasible  to  remedy  those  evils  which  have  temporarily  retarded  its 
prosperity.  In  the  performance  of  my  duties  ns  Colonial  Secretary,  to 
which  you  have  referred  in  such  kindly  terms,  I  have  merely  striven 
to  give  effect  to  my  firm  belief  that  the  Home  Government  had  no 
interests  here  to  serve  which  were  not  identical  with  those  of  the  colony, 
and  no  policy  for  its  servants  to  pursue  which  was  not  calculated  to  promote 
the  welfare  of  the  settlors  of  all  creeds  and  classes ;  I  believed  that  there 
was  nothing  incompatible  with  their  interests  in  those  obligations  of 
humanity  and  justice  towards  the  natives,  which  were  contracted  by  the 
Government,  when  possession  was  taken  of  this  territory,  and  compensation 
to  the  natives  in  the  way  of  civilization  and  enlightenment  became  a  debt 
of  justice  to  them.  ...  In  fine,  permit  me  in  bidding  you  now  farewell, 
to  entreat  you,  and  through  yon,  all  my  other  friends  in  distant  parts  of  the 
colony  who  have  joined  in  the  kindness  of  tliis  parting  Address,  to  give 
practical  demonstration  of  the  teachings  of  our  common  Christianity,  in 


230  MEMOIRS 


your  relations  with  those  who  differ  from  you  in  race  or  creed  ;  and  thus  by 
your  charity,  love  of  peace  and  justice,  make  the  influence  of  your  faith 
a  testimony  to  its  truth,  and  your  course  of  conduct  a  living  evidence  of 
its  power." 

Before  leaving  Australia,  Dr.  Madden  was  instrumental  in  getting 
some  native  children  sent  home,  with  a  view  to  their  educa- 
tion in  the  Propaganda  College  at  Eome.  This  circumstance  is 
referred  to  in  the  following  letters — the  first  published  in  The 
Tablet  of  May  19th,  1849,  and  the  second  addressed  to  the 
Under-Secretary  for  the  Colonies  : — 


(From  the  Eight  Rev.  Dr.  Brady  to  the  Rev.  John  Smith,  Dublin). 

Perth,  Western  Australia, 

January  6th,  1849. 

Sir, — The  natives  of  New  Holland  have  been  badly  treated,  neglected, 
and  calumniated  by  designing  men.  It  is  therefore  our  duty  to  protect, 
support,  and  enlighten  those  poor  children  of  nature,  truly  neglected  and 
abandoned  to  all  the  horrors  of  a  savage  life.  Our  good  protector  and 
defender  of  those  poor  destitute  creatures,  the  Hon.  R.  R.  Madden,  Colonial 
Secretary  of  Western  Australia,  has  undertaken  to  advocate  their  cause 
both  in  public  and  in  private.  He  and  hie  excellent  lady  have  kindly  taken 
upon  them  the  duties  of  sponsors  for  the  two  young  natives  whom  we  are  send- 
ing to  England,  and  who  I  must  accompany  to  the  ship  in  Freeman  tie. 

Adieu,  yours  affectionately, 

©  JoHS  Beady, 

Bishop  of  Perth. 


(To  the  Under-Secretary  for  the  Colonies). 

Previtalis  Hotel,  Panton- square,  Haymarket, 
May,  1849. 

Dear  Sir, — In  reply  to  your  inquiry  as  to  the  mental  capabilities  of  the 
Australian  Aborigines,  I  must  state  my  conviction,  that  if  we  seek  to  rid 
ourselves  of  the  responsibilities  of  our  position  as  intruders  who  have  taken 
possession  of  their  country  on  the  plea  of  their  irreclaimable  barbarity,  we 
will  have  the  guilt  of  hypocrisy  to  add  to  that  of  our  neglect  of  duty.  It 
is  surely  an  obligation  on  us  not  to  suffer  these  defenceless, ignorant,  unoffend- 
ing people  to  be  driven  before  the  face  of  civilization  off  their  own  soil,  without 
one  effort  of  a  comprehensive  nature,  to  compensate  them  for  the  loss  of  their 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEK.  9Sl 


lands  and  the  means  of  subsistence,  in  a  savage  state,  by  affording  them  the 
advantages  of  enUghtenment  and  the  teaching  of  new  methods  of  obtaining 
food  by  the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 

This  people  are  in  rapid  progress  to  their  end,  in  process  of  extinction 
and  extermination,  as  the  borders  of  our  settlements  extend.  This  condition 
of  theirs  is  considered  a  necessary  consequence  of  their  irremediable  bar- 
barity, but  this  I  believe  to  be  untrue.  You  know  I  am  well  acquainted  with 
people  existing  in  a  savage  state  in  various  other  countries.  "With  such 
opportunities  of  observation  then,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  not- 
withstanding the  actual  abject  condition  of  the  Australian  natives — destitute 
as  they  are  of  all  appliances  to  comfort — houseless,  careless  for  to-morrow's 
food,  pitiless  in  warfare,  and  perpetually  engaged  in  marauding  expeditions, 
they  are  endowed  with  mental  faculties  eminently  capable  of  improvement. 
A  few  weeks  before  my  departure  from  Austraha,  I  caused  two  native  children 
that  had  been  taken  out  of  savage  life  by  the  Koman  Catholic  mission,  to  be 
sent  home  with  me  for  education.  One  of  these  children  belonged  to  a  tribe 
of  cannibals,  he  had  been  taken  out  of  the  "Bush,"  a  naked  savage  child, 
utterly  unacquainted  with  white  men  and  their  ways  of  living,  until  he  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  present  Bishop  Salvado,  in  the  southern  district,  about 
one  hundred  miles  from  Perth,  yet  by  the  time  of  our  arrival  in  England  no 
white  child  of  his  age  could  be  much  superior  to  him  in  conduct  and 
demeanour.  They  are  both  now  in  Italy  making  rapid  progress  in  the  educa- 
tion they  are  receiving  at  a  college  in  Kome.  I  mention  the  fact  as  a  practi- 
cal illustration  of  my  conviction  of  the  capability  of  this  people  of  being 
improved  by  education  to  the  utmost  extent  that  may  fit  men  for  salvation 
in  another  world,  and  for  society  in  this ;  and  entitle  them  to  all  the  civil 
rights  and  privileges  belonging  to  it. 

I  am,  dear  sir,  yours  very  truly, 

R.  R.  Madden. 

In  the  following  despatch,  subsequently  forwarded  to  the  Secretary 
of  State  for  the  Colonies,  will  be  found  a  statement  of  the  work  ac- 
complished and  difficulties  encountered  by  Dr.  Madden  in  Western 
Australia,  and  of  the  condition  of  the  colony  at  that  time. 

(R.  R.  Madden,  Colonial  Secretary  of  Western  Australia,  to  the 
Right  Hon.  Earl  Grey,  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies). 

7,  Panton-square,  Haymarket, 

May  1849. 

My  Lord, — I  have  the  honour  of  reporting  my  arrival  on  the 
27th  ult.  in  this  country,  on  leave  of  absence  from  Western  Aus- 
tralia, where  I  hold  the  office  of  Colonial  Secretary,  and  of  trans- 
mitting a  despatch  for  your  lordship  from  his  Excellency  Governor 
Fitzgerald  on  the  subject  of  that  leave,  and  likewise  of  forwarding 
a  specimen  of  lead  ore  recently  discovered  in  the  newly-explored 
country,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  River  Murchison.  The  short- 
ness of  my  residence  at  the  place  which  was  the  sphere  of  my 


932  MEMOIRS 


duties  renders  it  necessary  for  me  to  allude  to  the  cause  of  my  ap- 
plication for  leave  of  absence,  viz.,  impaired  health,  occasioned  by 
a  domestic  calamity  of  no  ordinary  severity,  and  increased  official 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  responsibilities  incurred  for  measures  which 
I  succeeded  in  preventing  for  a  time,  but  which  despite  my  protest 
were  ultimately  carried  into  execution.  My  sense  of  the  duties  of 
my  office,  if  I  may  be  permitted  to  refer  to  it,  was  simply  this — 
that  they  were  to  be  discharged  in  such  a  manner  that  the  broad 
Imperial  policy  of  the  Home  Government  should  be  thereby  direc- 
ted towards  the  good  of  the  colonists  at  large,  and  for  the  protection 
of  the  aborigines.  As  Acting-Governor,  between  the  period  of  my 
arrival  in  the  Colony  and  that  of  his  Excellency  Governor  Fitz- 
gerald, it  was  my  endeavour  to  obviate  the  evils  occasioned  not  only 
by  the  incompetence  of  the  pre-existing  Local  Government,  but  also  by 
the  indefatigable  intolerance  of  an  honourable  member  of  the  Legisla- 
tive Council  who  filled  an  important  legal  office,  and  who  was  the  con- 
stant opponent  of  every  measure  which  I  deemed  calculated  to  advance 
the  good  of  the  natives,  the  harmony  of  a  community  of  varied  sects, 
and  the  general  interests  of  the  colony. 

I  feel,  my  lord,  the  less  hesitation  in  using  language  as  strong 

as  the  facts  themselves  with  respect  to  Mr ,  because  he  is 

now  in  England,  and  in  communication  with  the  Colonial  Office,  as 
the  representative  of  the  party  in  whose  hands  have  been  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Colony  for  so  long  a  period  to  its  signal  detriment. 
Some  of  my  efforts  to  obviate  those  evils  alluded  to  were  productive 
of  the  following  results  before  the  arrival  in  the  colony  of  the  pre- 
sent Governor  : — 

1st.  A  religious  war,  in  which  all  the  charities  of  life,  the  inter- 
ests of  Government,  and  the  feelings  of  individuals  had  been  out- 
raged and  violated,  not  only  with  impunity  and  connivance,  but 
with  official  encouragement,  was  put  an  end  to.  The  Eoman 
Catholic  Bishop  and  the  Acting-Governor  were  brought  into  peace- 
ful intercourse,  and  the  flock  of  the  former  and  the  officials  under 
the  latter  were  prevented  from  coming  into  conflicts  of  calumny 
disgraceful  to  any  community. 

2nd.  The  erroneous  statements  and  statistics  which  had  been 
the  basis  of  the  annual  Reports  transmitted  to  the  Home  Govern- 
ment, were  guarded  against  by  a  measure  that  met  with  strenuous 
opposition — viz.,  a  census  of  the  population,  produce,  and  stock 
of  the  settlement. 

3rd.  The  demand  for  explorations  to  meet  the  urgent  necessi- 
ties for  new  pasturage  was  comphed  with,  and  under  my  direction 
two  expeditions  were  prepared  and  sent  out.  The  result  of  these 
was  the  confirmation  of  Captain  Grey's  disputed  account  of  a  valu- 
able tract  of  country  hi  the  vicinity  of  the  Port  that  bears  his 
name,    and    the    discovery    of    a    valuable    lead     mine    in     the 


DR.     R.     R.     MADDEN.  233 


vicinity  of  the  Murchison,  and  the  coal  district  of  Mr.  Gregory's 
expedition. 

4th.  Confidence  was  infused  into  the  minds  of  the  colonists  in 
the  office  I  had  the  honour  to  hold,  by  preventing  advantage  being 
taken  of  official  station  to  advance  private  interests  at  the  expense 
of  public  ones,  by  altering  the  mode  of  granting  the  Crown  lands, 
and  causing  the  same  to  be  put  up  for  sale  at  public  auction. 

5th.  The  danger  of  putting  a  total  stop  to  the  trade  in  sandal 
wood  by  continuance  of  the  export  duty,  when  the  price  of  the  com- 
mochty  had  fallen  in  foreign  markets  nearly  one  half,  was  obvi- 
ated by  suspending  that  impost :  thus  enabling  the  traders  to  carry 
on  commerce  which  yielded  returns  adequate  to  the  payment  of 
the  whole  amount  of  foreign  grain  introduced  into  the  colony. 

6th.  The  Bank  was  called  on  for  the  first  time  to  make  period- 
ical returns  to  the  Government  of  the  specie  in  its  coffers,  and  the 
public  was  thus  protected  from  a  possible  danger. 

7th.  "J'he  claims  of  the  aborigines  on  the  justice  and  humanity 
of  the  Government  were  maintained  and  enforced.  Moreover,  it 
was  proved  feasible  during  my  short  administration  to  conjoin 
effective  measures  of  police  and  of  judicial  punishment  with  salu- 
tary measures  calculated  to  civilize  and  christianize  a  savage  people. 

8th.  The  policy  of  allowing  the  natives  to  perpetrate  murders 
with  impunity  when  the  victims  of  such  outrages  were  aborigines, 
was  departed  from,  and  a  respect  for  human  life,  whether  of  native 
or  settler,  was  Enforced. 

9th.  The  Government  was  saved  for  the  time  being  from  the 
enactment  of  a  measure  giving  summary  jurisdiction  over  the  na- 
tives to  the  local  magistracy,  taking  away  the  benefit  of  trial  by 
jury,  and  giving  the  power  of  flogging  the  natives  without  dis- 
tinction of  age  or  sex.  Subsequently,  however,  a  similar  ordinance 
was  carried  in  council,  despite  my  opposition  to  that  measure  and 
a  protest  of  mine  against  it,  which  his  Excellency  the  Governor 
proposed  to  transmit  to  your  lordship,  declining,  however,  to  abstain 
in  the  ensuing  Legislative  Council  from  passing  the  said  ordinance 
into  law  till  the  pleasure  of  the  Home  Government  should  be  known. 

On  this  subject  I  herewith  transmit  an  abstract  of  the  official 
correspondence  which  accompanied  my  protest.  Should  your  lord- 
ship desire  to  have  any  information  I  may  possess  respecting  the 
state  of  the  colony,  its  past  causes  of  failure,  and  future  prospects, 
either  verbally  or  more  extensively  in  a  general  Report,  I  believe  I 
am  in  a  condition  to  give  the  fullest  details  on  this  subject.  In 
fine,  if  I  have  mistaken  my  position  or  the  nature  of  its  duties,  the 
settlement  has  suffered  nothing  from  my  error.  My  desire  has 
been  to  see  Western  Australia  governed  as  a  British  colony  should  be 
ruled,  viz.,  with  broad  views  of  the  interests  alike  of  all  its  inhabi- 
tants, the  former  and  the  present  possessors  of  the  soil.     As  Colo- 


S34:  MEMOIRS 


nial  Secretary,  I  sought  to  prevent  the  destiny  of  this  colony  beinfj 
controlled  by  the  narrow  policy  of  a  small  bureaucracy  of  local 
officials  who,  dwelling  in  Perth  and  holding  land  by  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  acres  in  the  interior,  deem  themselves  also 
lawful  claimants  to  the  yet  unappropriated  portions  of  this  great 
territory.  Above  all,  I  considered  it  my  duty  to  protect  the  abori- 
gines from  those  who  dealt  with  them  as  mere  serfs,  or  slaves,  to 
whom  a  handful  of  flour  was  adequate  recompense  for  their  enforced 
labour  whenever  this  was  wanted  ;  and  by  whom  these  natives 
were  apparently  regarded  as  abject  beings,  whom  it  was  evidently 
deemed  politic  and  economical  to  thus  keep  degraded  and  so  profit 
by  their  degradation. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  my  Lord, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

R.  E.  Madden. 
To  THE  Right  Hon.  Eael  Grey, 


Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies. 


CHAPTER   XXX. 


RETURN       TO     IRELAND. 


On  his  arrival  in  Dubhn  from  Australia,  Dr.  Madden  received  a 
hospitable  welcome  in  the  house  of  his  sister,  the  late  Mrs.  Eliza- 
beth Oogan,*  rehct  of  Bryan  Cogan,  Esq.,  and  mother  of  the  Right 
Hon.  Wm.  H.  F.  Cogan,  D.L.,  of  Tinode,  who  for  upwards  of 
twenty  years  represented  Kildare  m  Parliament.  The  unceasing 
kindness  of  this  estimable  lady,  whose  death  in  1862  was  long 
mourned  by  all  who  had  ever  been  brought  into  contact  with  her, 
as  well  as  the  cheering  influence  of  her  genial  family  circle,*  were 
in  no  small  measure  serviceable  in  assuaging  the  feelings  of  bereave- 
ment under  the  influence  of  which  Dr.  Madden  returned  to 
Ireland.  Shortly  afterwards  he  determined  on  resigning  definitely 
the  Secretaryship  of  Western  Australia,  from  which  he  had  tempo- 
rarily retired  on  leave  of  absence.  With  that  object,  and  v^'ith  the 
consent  of  the  Colonial  Office,  he  efl'ected  an  exchange  of  appoint- 
ments with  Mr.  Piesse,  then  secretary  to  the  Loan  Fund  Board  in 

*  Her  3'oiingeBt  daughter,  Miss  Margaret  Cogan,  died  4th  April  1876. 


DR.     R.     R.     MADDEN.  935 


Dublin  Castle,  and  this  office  he  held  for  thirty  years,  until  he  re- 
tired from  it  in  1880,  being  then  in  his  82nd  year,  when  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  late  Mr.  P.  J.  Smith,  M.P.  During  his  long  tenure 
of  that  appointment,  Dr.  Madden  devoted  his  leisure  to  literary 
pursuits  ;  nor  were  there  many  works  of  philanthropy  in  Ireland 
during  this  period  with  which  his  name  was  not  associated.  In 
reference  to  the  resignation  of  his  Australian  office,  and  the  motives 
which  led  to  this  step,  we  may  here  quote  a  letter  from  Sir  James 
Stephens,  then  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the  University 
of  Cambridge : 

Cambridge,  17th  July  1860. 

My  dear  Dr.  Madden, — I  write  now  merely  to  say  what  I  could  not  have 
said  with  the  same  confidence  before,  that  I  am  sincerely  glad  of  your  de- 
termination to  resign  your  office  in  Western  Australia,  and  have  not  the 
least  doubt  that  you  have  judged  wisely.  The  most  difficult  questions  in 
casuistry,  are  those  which  relate  to  the  order  in  which  rival  duties  are  to  be 
preferred  to  each  other.  But  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  parental  duty, 
especially  in  a  case  such  as  yours,  is  the  highest  which  you  owe  to  any  fellow- 
creature,  next  after  the  duties  of  conjugal  life,  that  your  boy  has  an  absolute 
right  to  your  personal  care ;  that  therefore  you  have  not  a  right  to  put  half 
the  world  between  you  and  him  ;  and  that  you  have  still  less  right  to  take 
him  with  you  to  the  other  side  of  it,  and  to  bring  him  into  contact  with  tho 
present  colonists  there,  unless,  indeed,  his  actual  subsistence  depended  upon  it. 

Therefore,  just  sit  quietly  down  in  this  anxious  land,  do  what  you  can  to 
enlighten  and  to  improve  it,  and  ten  years  hence,  when  the  boy  shall  have 
become  a  man,  migrate  with  him  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  if  such  shall 
then  be  his  pleasure  and  yours. 

Now  I  am  going  to  read  my  lectures,  and  so  farewell. 

Ever  yours, 

James  Stephens. 

Not  long  after  his  arrival  home  Dr.  Madden  took  up  his  abode 
at  **  Leitrim  Lodge,"  Castlewood  Avenue,  Rathmines.  Here  he 
remained  for  the  ensuing  eight  or  ten  years,  subsequently  removing 
to  Frescati,  Blackrock,  once  the  residence  of  Lord  Edward  Fitz- 
gerald ;  thence  (on  his  son's  settling  down  as  a  physician  in  Dublin) 
migrating  to  Great  Den  mark- street,  with  a  country  residence  on- 
looking  the  beautiful  Bay  of  Killiney,  at  Vigo  Terrace,  Dalkey ; 
and  after  the  marriage  of  that  son,  from  Ballygihien  Avenue, 
Glasthule,  to  3,  Vernon  Terrace,  Booterstown,  where  his  last 
eighteen  years  were  passed.  Dr.  Maddcn's  domestic  life  during 
these  years  may  be  here  alluded  to,  and  it  was  of  a  character  to 
render  its  termination  a  loss  irreparable  to  those  connected  with 
him.  To  them,  and  to  all  who  knew  his  worth,  he  was  endeared 
as  one  whose  conduct  was  ever  marked  by  the  highest  sense  of 


536  MEMOIRS 


rectitude  ;  whose  manners  were  genial,  dignified,  and  polished ; 
whose  mind  was  stored  with  varied  culture,  evinced  in  refinement 
of  tastes  and  feelings.  Above  all,  however,  the  predominant  char- 
acteristics of  his  nature  were  earnest  love  of  his  country,  of  justice, 
and  of  humanity.  This  was  consistently  shewn  not  only  in  all  his 
writings,  but  also  in  every  phase  of  his  career  at  home  and  abroad, 
as  the  fearless  advocate,  often  under  circumstances  of  no  com- 
mon difficulty,  of  the  down-trodden  and  oppressed,  whether  in  the 
slave  barricones  of  the  African  coast  or  West  Indies,  or  in  the  dis- 
tant retreats  of  the  ill-used  aborigines  of  Australia,  or  in  the  fever- 
haunted  sheds  of  the  Irish  workhouses,  in  which  the  victims  of  the 
famine  years  sought  a  refuge.  For  such  were  Dr.  Madden's  sym- 
pathies and  aid  always  ready,  at  whatever  sacrifice  of  his  own  in- 
terests. In  private  life  his  charity  was  unfailing,  and  his  heart 
never  insensible  to  the  claims  of  the  necessitous,  to  whom,  however 
small  his  means,  his  hand  was  ever  open.  Moreover,  on  every 
occasion  his  services  were  at  the  disposal  of  other  literary 
men,  on  whose  behalf  he  was  unsparing  of  any  effort,  whilst,  as 
before  said,  singularly  unsolicitous  of  his  own  advantage.  In  this 
respect  his  conduct  remained  uninfluenced  by  experience  of 
the  proverbial  thanklessness  of  the  recipients  of  kindness,  as  he 
then  merely  recalled  the  words  of  his  favourite  poet— 

'•  We  are  born  to  do  benefits." 

Wherever  he  resided.  Dr.  Madden's  love  of  literature  was  ap- 
parent in  his  surroundings,  almost  every  room  being  soon  lined 
from  floor  to  ceiling  with  the  "  old  books  "  in  which  he  dehghted, 
and  hung  with  the  portraits  of  the  literary  friends  of  his  youth, 
the  souvenirs  of  travel  in  distant  lands,  or  the  cherished  relics  of 
the  periods  of  Irish  history,  to  the  rescue  of  which  from  oblivion 
he  had  devoted  so  many  years  of  ill-requited  toil.  Thus  surrounded, 
he  continued  almost  to  the  last  moment  of  life  to  ply  his  busy  pen, 
and  well  were  all  his  labours  shared,  his  comforts  tended,  and  his 
troubles  soothed,  by  his  devoted  wife,  by  whose  inteUigent  and  un- 
tiring co-operation  and  assistance  alone  was  he  enabled  to  accom- 
plish an  amount  of  literary  work  such  as  few  others  have  left  on 
record. 

Dr.  Madden's  hospitality  of  character  was  one  of  his  most  marked 
traits,  and  this  was  displayed  not  in  the  gorgeous  entertainments 
on  state  occasions,  lomfo  intervalo,  now  in  fashion  with  persons  of 
larger  incomes,  but  in  weekly  recurring  gatherings  at  his  dinner  table 
of  those  of  literary  tastes  and  pursuits.  At  these  Sunday  dinners, 
abundant,  simple  hospitality,  and  social  intercourse  of  men  of  letters 
and  of  intellect,  furnished  reunions  more  agreeable  to  those  concerned 


Da.    R.    K.    MADDEN.  237 


than  might  be  met  with  at  most  of  the  ordinary  society  dinners  of 
the  present  day.     The   guests  thus   gathered  around  that   board 
included  men  distinguished  in  almost  every  field  of  literature  and 
science.     Amongst  these  inter  aliis,  may   be  here  mentioned  the 
names  of  Denis  Florence  McCarthy,   translator  of  Calderon,  and 
better  known  as  one  of  the  sweetest  of  modern  Irish  poets   as  well 
as  the  biographer  of  Shelley  ;   John   Cornelius    O'Callaghan  (the 
"Blessed    Cornelius,    as    he    was  facetiously   termed),    author   of 
llie  Green  Book,  and  historian  of  The  Irish  Brigades,  whose  often 
oddly-appHed,    old-world    classical   learning,     quaint    sayings    and 
songs,  were  wont  to  "  set  the  table  in  a  roar  ;  "   P.  V.  J'itzpatrick, 
the  intimate  associate  of  O'Connell,  whose  inexhaustible  wit  and  flow 
of  anecdote,  well  merited  another  lies  well  for  their  chronicler  ;  John 
Patton,  brother-in-law  of  Emmet,  and  the  last  survivor  of  "  the  men 
of  '98  ";  Father  T.  Healy,  the  witty  and  genial  P.P.  of  Little  Bray ; 
Matthias  O'Kelly,  the  kindly  naturahst ;  Dr.  Anster,  the  learned 
translator  of  JPaust ;  John  T.  Gilbert,  the  well-known  author,  editor 
of  facsimiles  of  National  MS.,  recently  published  by  command  of 
Her  Majesty  ;  George  Petrie,  the  distinguished  archaeologist  and 
artist,  and  his  brother  Academicians  of  famous  memory,  Mulvanny 
and  Mulrenin ;   M.    Alphonse  Gage,   the   profound  mineralogist  ; 
Frederick  W.  Conway,  editor  of  the  Dublin  Evening  Post,  and  his  son- 
in-law,  M.  Dwyer,  by  whom  he  was  succeeded  in  the  management  of 
that  journal,  and  who  is  now  Registrar  of  Deeds  ;  Sir  John  Gray,  the 
editor  of  the  Freeman's  Journal ;   Sir  William  Wilde,  no  less  emi- 
neut  as  an  antiquary  and  biographer  of  Swift  than  in  his  profes- 
sion as  an  occuhst ;  Dr.  W.  K.  Sullivan,  the  celebrated  chemist,  late 
President  of  the  Queen's  College,  Cork  ;  P.  Hardy,  the  spiritualist ; 
Thomas  O'Hagan  (afterwards  Baron  O'Hagau,  Lord  Chancellor  of 
Ireland),  together  with  his  intimate  friend,  John  (subsequently  Sir 
John)  Lentaigne,  Director  of  Prisons  and  Reformatories  ;  Thomas 
C.  Newby,  the  genial  publisher ;  the  late  Canon  Farrell,  a  worthy 
representative  of  the  last  generation  of  clergymen,  no  less  cultured 
and  refined  than  devoted  to  his  sacred  calling  ;  Dr.  Waller  the  poet ; 
Dr.  Madden's  last  old  school-mate, Mr.  W.  Bernard  MacCabe,  author  of 
A    Catholic  History  of  England,  and  many  other  excellent  works  ; 
Sir  William  Ferguson,  the  poet  and  archajologist ;  James  Murphy  of 
Cork,  a  world   wide  traveller  and   enthusiastic  bibhopole ;   Canon 
O'Hanlon,  the  erudite  author  of  the  Hibernian  Acta  Sanctorum ; 
J.   P.  Prendergast,  the  chronicler  of  The   Cromivellian  Settlement 
of  Ireland;  Michael  Banim,  the  L'ish  novehst ;  Dr.  Mazier  Brady, 
author  of  several  important  works  on  Irish  Ecclesiastical  History; 
Dr.  Maunsell,  editor  of  the  Dublin  Evening  Mail,  and  his  accomp- 
lished successor  m  that  editorial  chair,  Mr.  J.  Scott ;  Mr.   Godkin, 
a  veteran  pressman  and  prolific  writer;  the  Rev.  J.  M'Mahon,  a 


S38  MEMOIRS 


valued  contributor  to  the  Duhlin  University  Magazine  ;  Professors 
O'Curry,  O'Donovan,  and  William  Hennessy,  the  well-known  Celtic 
scholars,  and  Martin  Haverty,  the  too  modest  author  of  an  admir- 
able History  of  Ireland. 

Of  these,  and  the  numerous  otber  bookish  men  who  were  thus 
wont  to  meet  around  Dr.  Madden's  table,  too  many  have  since  then 
also  passed  into  the  silent  land,  and  with  him  and  the  kindly  host- 
ess who  so  well  managed  that  hospitable  house,  now  rest  in  their 
**  long  last  home"  in  Donnybrook  churchyard,  leaving  behind  but  the 
fast  fading  remembrance  of  names  which  might  have  well  been  deemed 
entitled  to  a  place  among  those  *'  in  quorum  obsolessere  memoria 
non  debet." 

At  those  pleasant  Sunday  dinners,  which  were  in  truth  "  the 
feast  of  reason  and  f^ow  of  soul,"  the  grave  and  impassioned  disser- 
tations on  forgotten  questions  of  historic  lore  in  which  O'Callaghan 
so  delighted,  were  oftentimes,  to  his  great  and  loudly  expressed  in- 
dignation, interrupted  by  the  hilarious  cross  fire  of  punning  com- 
mentaries indulged  in  by  M'Carthy  and  Gilbert ;  and  by  one  of 
these  scenes  the  following  impromptu  was  called  forth — 

PAEODY    ON    "CEASE    YOUE    PUNNING." 

Cease  your  punning, 
All  these  stunning 
Peals  of  funning 

Drive  me  mad ; 
Always  joking, 
More  than  croaking 
Merits  choking 
End  most  sad ! 


Ev'ry  punster 
Is  a  monster, 
Doth  misconstre'^ 

Words  'tis  clear ; 
All  these  jingling 
Sounds  come  mingling 
Strangely  tingling, 

Strike  the  ear. 

Sense  is  smothered. 
Hearing's  bothered, 
Eeason's  pothered, 

Puzzled  quite. 
Cease  yonr  punning, 
Let  these  stunning, 
Peals  of  funning 

Cease  to-night 

R.  E.  M. 


DR.    R.   R.    MADDEN. 


33d 


CHAPTEE    XXXI. 


THE     CONDITION     OF     IRELAND     DURING     THE     FAMINE     YEARS. 

When  Dr.  Madden  returned  to  Ireland  in  1849,  he  found  the  land 
he  loved  still  in  the  throes  of  that  direful  period  since  known  as 
"  the  famine  years,"  the  commencement  of  which  he  had  witnessed 
before  his  departure  for  Australia.  Hardly  had  he  settled  down  in 
Dublin  than  he  threw  himself  with  all  his  energy  into  the  labours 
of  the  association  working  for  the  relief  of  that  distress.  His  first 
connexion  with  this  association  appears  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Gene- 
ral Relief  Committee  for  June  30th,  1849  : — 

Rev.  C.  Burke  in  the  chair. 

Present — "Very  Rev.  Dr.  Spratt,  Rev.  T.  O'Malley,  James 
Haughton,  A.  G.  MoUer,  J.  Burke,  W.  Gray,  Gustavus  Hamilton, 
and  Henry  Corr. 

Mr.  Haughton  read  the  following  letter  : 

Leitrim  Lodge,  Castlewood  Avenue, 

Bathmines,  June  30th,  1819. 

Sir, — I  bog  to  enclose  some  money  banded  to  me  to  be  forwarded  to  the 
Most  Rev.  Dr.  MacHale,  for  the  reUef  of  the  famishing  people  of  the  west  of 
Ireland.  I  beg  also  to  transmit,  for  the  same  object,  my  own  small  contribu- 
tion— small  indeed  if  considered  a  criterion  of  my  opinion  of  the  misery 
that  it  is  attempted  to  alleviate.  The  magnitude  of  that  misery  I  believe  it 
would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate.  The  nature  of  it  in  after  times  will  be  a 
subject  of  astonishment  to  the  civilized  world.  I  have  seen  nothing  com- 
parable to  its  horrors  in  Asia,  Africa,  America,  or  Australia.  I  have  read 
nothing  of  the  great  famines  of  the  thirteenth  century  so  terrible  in  their 
consequences  as  this  famine  of  ours  in  the  nineteenth  century,  or  so  appall- 
ing in  the  spectacle  it  presents  of  the  combined  wrath  of  God  and  man, 
evinced  in  the  present  joint  operation  of  a  process  of  degtruction  of  a  people 
by  famine  and  eviction. 

I  am,  sir,  your  very  obedient  servant, 

R.  R.  Madden. 
To  James  Haughton,  Esq. 

Mr.  Haughton  moved,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Spratt  seconded  that  Dr. 
Madden  be  admitted  a  member  of  the  committee,  which  was  passed 
unanimously. — 

The  condition  of  Ireland  at  that  time  was  investigated  and  des- 
cribed in  a  series  of  letters  under  the  signature  "X,"  published  by 


240  MEMOIRS 


Dr.  Madden  during  tlie  years  1849,  '60,  and  '51,  in  the  Freeman's 
Journal.  These  letters,  dealing  with  the  general  condition  of  the 
countrj,  the  exodus  and  destruction  by  famine  and  pestdence  of 
the  peasantry,  life  and  death  in  the  Irish  workhouses,  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Poor  Laws,  form  a  large  volume,  in  the  present 
editor's  possession,  entitled  "  Food  and  Famine  Papers,"  which,  if 
published,  would  afford  important  material  for  the  future  historian 
of  that  epoch.  For  these  articles  the  space  here  available  does 
not  afford  room.  We  may,  however,  briefly  quote  some  of  the  editorial 
comments  on  these  Reports  as  evidence  of  their  value. — From  the 
Freeman's  Journal  of  August  19th,  1850,  and  subsequent  date : 

CONDITION    OF    THE    COUNTRY— EXTERMINATION. 

We  publish  in  another  column  a  remarkable  letter,  signed  "X," 
in  which  the  writer,  a  gentleman  of  vast  experience  and  of  scrupu- 
lous accuracy,  describes  what  he  himself  saw  during  a  short  tour  in 
the  midland  and  western  districts.  We  ask  attention  to  the  state- 
ments made  in  that  letter,  to  the  rigid  accuracy  of  which  we  do  not 
hesitate  to  pledge  ourselves,  on  the  faith  of  our  respected  and 
valued  correspondent.  The  habit  of  close  observation,  which  has 
become  a  part  of  our  correspondent's  nature  from  long  exercise, 
induces  us  to  conclude  that  he  cannot  be  much  mistaken  in  his 
conclusions.  But  bad  though  that  condition  is  represented  to  be, 
it  must  become  worse  and  worse  if  the  fearful  exterminations  which 
"X"  describes  as  still  in  progress  are  not  speedily  and  effectively 
checked. — "  I  have  seen,"  he  says,  "the  ruins  of  about  five  hun- 
dred recently  demohshed  dwellings  of  the  peasantry  "  that  have 
*'  within  the  last  month"  been  the  abodes  of  TWO  THOUSAND 
FIVE  HUNDRED  human  beings." 

LIFE     AND    DEATH     IN     IRISH     POORHOUSES. 

We  invite  the  careful  attention  of  our  readers  to  the  letter 
signed  **  X,"  on  the  Poorhouse  dietaries,  which  we  publish  to-day. 
"  X "  is  one  of  the  few  men  who,  with  enlarged  minds,  possess 
also  enlarged  hearts.  Endowed  with  great  judgment  and  with  un- 
wearying industry,  our  respected  correspondent  has  devoted  much 
time  to  the  examination  of  the  question  on  which  he  has  written. 
Would  that  there  were  many  such  men  in  Ireland  as  "X,"  who 
would  day  after  day  proclaim  the  wrongs  and  sufferings  of  our 
people,  and  so  create  a  wholesome  public  opinion  that  vrould  force 
the  guardians  into  an  abandonment  of  the  slow-poison  diet  which 
it  is  demonstrated  by  the  letter  of  "  X  "  is  now  being  used  through- 
out most  of  the  unions  of  Ireland  to  the  destruction  of  human  life 


DR.    K.    S.    MADDEN.  241 


to  an  extent  wliich  it  is  fearful  even  to  think  of.  In  another 
column  we  print,  under  the  above  head,  a  most  important  document 
from  our  valued  correspondent  "  X,"  which  gives  so  fearful  a 
picture  of  the  condition  of  the  poor  in  the  Irish  workhouses,  that 
humanity  would  cause  us  to  withhold  our  credence  had  we  not  daily 
proofs  that  the  work  of  slaughter  described  is  not  in  the  slightest 
degree  exaggerated.  We  wish  every  statesman — English  and  Irish, 
had  a  copy  of  this  letter  in  his  hand.  To  our  representatives  we 
earnestly  commend  this  letter  and  the  unprotected  poor,  whose  case 
it  so  earnestly,  so  foi'cibly.  and  so  truthfully  advocates.  This  is  a 
matter  of  life  and  deatli,  in  which  men  of  all  politics  ought  to  be 
enlisted."  The  public  attcRtion  thus  attracted  to  the  Irish  Poor- 
Law  system  by  the  letters  referred  to.  caused  no  small' commotion 
amongst  those  responsible  for  its  administration,  and  strenuous 
efforts  were  made  to  trace  the  author.  The  result  was  the  follow- 
ing correspondence  between  the  Irish  Government  and  Dr.  Madden  : 

Dublin  Castle, 

10th  April  1851. 

Sir, — I  am  directed  by  the  Lord  J  ieutenant  to  acquaint  you  that  his 
Excellency  has  been  informed  that  you  visited  Kilrush  Union  in  the  course 
of  last  year,  and  inspected  the  workhouses  thereof,  and  that  you  solicited 
information  on  that  occasion,  stating  that  you  were  "  officially  connected 
with  the  Government.'* 

From  a  comparison  of  the  remarks  made  by  you  in  the  visitors'  book  of 
the  Union  workhouse  and  the  observations  contained  in  a  letter  published 
in  the  Freeman's  Journal  of  IMarch  5th,  1851,  under  the  signature  of  "  X," 
it  has  been  suggested  to  his  Excellency  that  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that 
you  are  the  author  of  that  letter.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  thinks  it  due,  there- 
fore, to  you  to  make  known  this  matter  to  you,  and  to  request  that  you  will 
state  wheth  er  such  is  the  case,  and  whether,  as  above  stated,  you  sought 
information  in  the  district  announcing  yourself  as  a  person  officially  con- 
nected with  the  Government.  His  IZxcelleucy  is  anxious  for  your  reply  to 
these  queries,  as,  if  these  facts  are  admitted,  he  considers  that  you  have  ac- 
ted improperly  in  seeking  information  ostensibly  as  a  person  "  connected 
with  the  Government  "  ;  and  then,  while  withholding  it  from  the  Govern- 
ment, in  having  communicated  the  result  of  these  inquiries  to  the  public 
through  an  anonymous  communication  to  a  public  journal.  The  result  in 
the  present  instance  is  stated  to  his  Excellency  to  have  been  that  charges  of 
a  most  serious  nature  are  made  against  the  administration  of  the  Poor  Law, 
which,  if  communicated  by  you,  should  properly  be  made  to  the  Govern- 
ment or  the  proper  department,  in  order  that  they  might  be  examined  and 
considered. 

His  Excellency  requests  your  reply  on  this  matter. 

am,  Sir, 
Your  obedient  servant, 

T.  Eeddikgton. 


To  R.  R.  Madi>en,  Esq.,  Ac. 


IT 


24S  MEMOIRS 


Leitrim  Lodge,  Castlewood  Avenue, 

Bathmines,  lltii  April  1851. 


Sir, — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the 
10th  iust.,  stating  that  his  Excellency  had  been  informed  I  had  inspected 
tlie  workhouses  of  the  Kilrush  Union  in  the  course  of  last  year  ;  that  I  had 
solicited  information  on  the  ground  that  I  was  "  officially  connected  with  the 
(jovernment ;  "  and  that  it  had  been  suggested  I  was  author  of  a  letter  pub- 
lished inthei^>e<?7/ia?i's  Journal  of  the  6th  of  March  last  containing  observations 
similar  in  character  to  some  remarks  made  in  the  visitors'  book  of  the  Kil- 
rush Poorhouse.  I  think  it  is  due  to  his  Excellency  and  to  myself  not  to 
exercise  any  reserve  in  answering  the  inquiries  to  which  my  reply  is  now 
desired. 

I  did  visit  the  Kilrush  workhouses,  not  in  the  course  of  last  year,  but  in  the 
early  part  of  February  last.  I  did  not  "  solicit  information"  on  that  or  any 
other  occasion,  on  the  ground  that  I  was  "officially  connected  with  the  Govern- 
ment," The  statement  of  my  having  done  so  is  a  wicked  and  wilful  fabrication; 
and  I  have  the  proof  of  its  being  so  in  the  handwriting  of  the  only  gentleman 
in  Kilrush  connected  with  the  workhouse  with  whom  I  had  any  intercourse. 

This  letter  I  am  prepared,  if  necessary,  to  lay  before  his  Excellency. 

To  the  next  point  of  inquiry,  not  ui  the  way  of  any  absurd  bravado,  but  in 
a  grave  and  sober  spirit,  I  reply  that  the  letters  signed  "  X,"  which  appeared 
in  the  Freeman's  Journal  of  the  (Jth  March,  &c.,  were  written  by  me,  and 
that  I  still  respectfully  adhere  to  the  opinions  and  statements  thus  published. 
I  did  not  originally  collect  the  information  contained  with  the  intention  of 
publishing  it  ;  but  when  the  facts  stated  connected  with  Poor-Law  Manage- 
ment in  Ireland  came  to  my  knowledge,  I  thought  that  the  interests  of 
humanity  would  be  promoted   by  giving  publicity  to  them. 

I  have  not  yet  published  any  matter  respecting  Kilrush  Union  workhouses 
but  I  have  prepared  for  publication  extensive  notes  on  this  subject,  made  by 
me  with  some  care,  at  Kilrush,  and  I  have  already  taken  steps  to  carry  that 
object  into  execution.  These  observations  as  they  stand,  I  will,  if  it  be  so  de 
sired,  lay  before  his  Excellency,  for  his  consideration  as  well  as  for  the 
information  of  the  Poor  Law  Commissioners. 

J  inally,  sn,  I  would  beg  to  have  it  stated  to  his  Excellency  that  the  sub- 
ject of  Poor-Law  Management  in  Ireland,  is  one  that  I  regard  not  as  any 
political  or  polemical  matter,  in  the  public  discussion  of  which  it  may 
not  now  be  permissible  for  me  to  take  part,  but  as  a  great  and  urgent 
fiuestion  of  humanity,  from  an  interest  in  whirh  none  can  be  debarred.  And 
hence  I  trust  that  even  if  I  should  have  fallen  into  any  technical  contraven- 
tion of  official  usage  by  my  action  in  this  matter,  perhaps  his  Excellency 
will  be  pleased  to  think  that  this  departure  from  routine  procedure  was 
of  a  character  which  anyone  who  had  long  been  engaged  in  the  cause  of 
outraged  humanity  abroad,  as  I  have  been,  might,  under  the  present  ap- 
palling circumstances,  here,  very  naturally  fall  into. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  sir. 

Your  very  obedient  servant, 

K.  E.  Madden. 

To  the  Under-Secretar}  to  his  Excellency  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  Dublin  Castle. 

A  week  subsequently  in  his  reply,  the  Under-Secretary  requested 
that  the  communication  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  letter  should  be 
laid  before  the  Lord  Lieutenant.     In  accordance  with  that  request, 


DK.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  248 


Dr.  Madden  forwarded  to  the  Government  a  Report  prepared  in  con- 
tinuation of  the  articles  before  aUuded  to.  This,  although  dealing 
principally  with  the  condition  of  certain  districts  in  Clare,  and  the 
administration  of  Poor-Law  relief  there,  was  eqiiallj  applicable  to  the 
rest  of  the  south  and  west  of  Ireland  at  that  time.  These  statements 
were  amply  verified  on  consequent  investigation,  and  resulted  in 
such  changes  in  the  system  exposed,  as  to  produce  an  immedi- 
ate diminution  of  mortality  which,  in  one  institution,  fell  to  a 
third  of  its  previous  amount,  as  soon  as  his  suggestions  were,  even  in 


part,  adopted. 


CHAPTER    XXXII. 

REPORT    ON    lEISH    POOR    LAW    SYSTEM    IN    THE    FAMINE    -YEARS. 

The  picture  of  life  and  death  in  Irish  Workhouses,  and  of  the  con5 
dition  of  the  peasantry  in  the  south  and  west  of  Ireland  during 
the  closing  period  of  the  calamitous  famine  epoch  forty  years 
ago,  contained  in  the  documents  aUuded  to,  affords  a  graphic 
and  accurate  description  of  a  state  of  things  the  existence  of  which 
in  any  Christian  land  might  seem  almost  impossible,  but  which 
was  too  well  proven  at  that  time.  In  the  belief  therefore  that 
this  statement  may  be  found  of  future  as  w^ell  as  of  present  interest, 
the  following  well  authenticated  and  hitherto  unpublished  Report 
by  Dr.  Gladden  is  here  inserted  :  — 

6th  Letter  signed  '*X"  on  the  Administration  of  the  Irish 
Poor  Laws,  in  February  1851.* 

The  state  of  the  Kilrush  Union  parent  workhouse  and  its  auxil- 
iaries in  the  month  of  February  last  is  the  chief  subject  of  the 
present  communication.  To  this  account,  the  result  of  personal 
inquiry  and  observation,  some  details  of  a  later  date  are  added. 
The  parent  workhouse  in  Kilrush  in  the  month  of  February  last 
presented,  on  the  days  for  receiving  applications  for  admissions, 
spectacles  of  the  most  extraordinary  description  that  were  probably 
ever  witnessed  in  any  Christian  land ;  such  as  I  never  beheld 
before,  and  pray  I  may  never  witness  again.     On  the  occasion  re- 

*  Set  up  in  type  but  not  published.  This  letter  being  forwarded  to  the  Government  and 
acted  on  by  them,  the  weekly  mortality  in  Kiliush  Poorhouses  was  reduced  in  a  few  woeksfrom 
80  odd  to  an  amouut  varying  from  .10  to  30.— R.  R  M. 

17    * 


244  iviEMOiRs 


ferred  to  there  was  a  multitude  of  human  beings,  exceeding  a 
thousand,  congregated  round  the  building,  men.  women  and  children, 
ill  every  state  of  famine,  debility  and  disease,  arising  from  want  of 
fooil,  want  of  sufficient  raiment,  and  in  many  cases  want  of  shelter 
lit  for  human  beings  at  that  inclement  season. 

I'here  were  a  considerable  number  of  low-backed  cars  from  which 
the  horses  had  been  unyoked  ranged  along  the  wall  in  front  of  the 
entrance.  On  these  cars  applicants  for  admission  were  lying 
stretched  on  straw,  chiefly  aged  people  of  both  sexes,  and  children, 
even  infants.  On  some  cars  there  were  as  many  as  four  or 
five  palhd,  listless,  emaciated,  ragged  children ;  on  others,  famished 
creatures,  far  gone  in  fever,  dysentery  and  dropsy,  unable  to  walk, 
stand,  or  even  to  sit  upright,  and  these  sick  and  famishing  crea- 
tures were  brought  there,  as  I  was  informed,  by  neighbours  who 
had  lent  cars  to  convey  them  to  the  Poorhouse,  and  a  great  number 
of  them,  to  use  their  own  language,  *'  for  a  coffin."  On  surprise 
being  expressed  at  hearing  this  reason  given  for  the  removal  of 
these  people,  and  the  question  being  repeated,  one  of  those  mori- 
bund applicants  for  admission  in  order  to  get  a  shell  and  a  grave — 
,  a  man  more  like  a  skeleton  than  a  living  man,  yet  not  much  above 
forty  years  of  age, — said  in  a  low,  hollow-toned  voice — "  Yes,  to 
get  a  coffin,  your  honour." 

There  was  a  vast  number,  moreover,  of  others  apparently  in  the 
last  stage  of  destitution,  who  had  crawled  there  from  distant  places, 
that  seemed  to  be  nearly  in  as  bad  a  condition  as  those  stretched 
on  the  cars.  They  were  squatting  about  the  outer  walls  waiting 
their  turn  to  be  called,  while  the  courtyard  was  thronged  with  a 
dense  mass  of  misery  which  it  was  not  only  shocking,  but  terrify- 
ing even  to  look  upon  and  to  pass  through.  And  yet  these  appli- 
cants for  admission  into  tlie  Kilrush  Poorhouse,  so  frightfully  ear- 
nest and  eager  to  get  into  that  asylum,  clamouring  and  pressing 
forward,  the  less  weak  thrusting  aside  the  more  infirm,  the  young 
hustling  the  old,  the  women  pulling  back  the  children,  larger  chil- 
dren pushing  back  the  smaller,  uttering  confused  cries  of  pain,  im- 
patience, anger  and  despair,  had  only  come  there  when  every  other 
means  of  sustaining  life  had  failed.  There  was  not  one  of  those  I 
questioned  who  had  not  a  mortal  terror  of  that  Poorhouse  of  Kilrush, 
and  had  not  overcome  it,  only  when  the  charity  on  which  they  had 
eked  out  a  miserable  existence  had  been  utterly  exhausted,  or  when 
the  use  of  the  boiled  nettles  and  other  weeds  which  had  been  their 
food  of  late  had  brought  them  to  the  brink  of  the  grave.  A  close 
observer  could  tell  those  amongst  them  who  had  been  thus  subdued 
by  starvation  to  this  last  resource,  not  onl}^  by  the  sight  of  their 
form  and  features — hardly  those  of  human  beings — but  also  by 
that  peculiar  smell  of  mouldy  substances  which  is  perceptible 
about  the  persons  of  starving  people. 


DR.    U.    E.    MADDEN.  245 


The  tumult  round  tlie  door  was  almost  equalled  by  the  turmoil 
and  confusion  that  reigned  in  the  hall,  where  the  guardians  were 
assembled  deciding  on  the  claims  of  the  famished  multitude,  and 
applying  to  each  case  "the  workhouse  test."  It  was  surprising 
amidst  the  uproar  and  horrid  strife  of  shrill  and  most  discordant 
cries  how  any  business  could  have  been  transacted  there. 

Aspro  conserto,  orribile  armonia, 
D'alte  querele,  d  ululi,  e  di  strida, 
Istranamente  concordar  s'udia. 

There  was  nothing  of  downright  harshness,  however,  observable 
in  the  conduct  of  the  Poor  Law  officials  towards  the  unfortunate 
wretches  who  stood  before  them  awaiting  their  doom.  The  terrible 
duty  that  devolved  on  these  gentlemen  was  performed  apparently 
in  a  cool,  quiet,  business-hke  manner,  by  men  accustomed  by  their 
office — "  triste  ministerium  " — to  such  scenes,  and  therefore  capable 
of  dealing  with  them  in  the  manner  they  thought  best  for  the  in- 
terests ol  the  ratepayers,  and,  as  far  as  was  consistent  with  the 
latter,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  for  the  interests  of  humanity.  The 
difficulty  of  the  position  of  those  gentlemen  it  would  not  be  easy 
to  exaggerate.  But,  wliut  adequate  idea  would  any  words  convey 
of  the  frightful  condition  of  the  people  of  those  districts  which 
constitute  the  Kilrush  Union  that  could  furnish  such  an  appalling 
spectacle  of  human  misery  as  I  have  referred  to  on  this  occasion, 
resulting  as  it  did  to  a  very  great  extent,  from  acts  that  have  as- 
sumed in  this  locality  the  character  of  a  settled  policy — the  des- 
truction of  the  houses  of  the  jioor. 

The  Poor  Law  contemplated  a  provision  for  the  destitute  on 
whom  the  hand  of  God  had  fallen  heavily  in  a  time  of  great  calam- 
ity,— for  the  poor  thus  stricken  down  who  could  not  hve  by  labour. 
But  the  work  of  eviction  has  so  augmented  pauperism  that  the 
Poorhouse  accommodation  in  the  land  proves  insufficient  to  afford 
shelter  for  the  poor  who  have  been  unhoused  by  their  fellow-men. 
The  whole  of  the  west  of  Ireland,  and  above  all  the  county  Clare, 
at  the  present  moment  can  be  best  described  by  comparing  its  con- 
dition to  that  of  a  weak  man  dying  slowly  of  a  chronic  disease  for 
which  no  remedy  (deserving  that  name)  has  been  apphed,  sinking 
gradually  by  the  most  hideous  of  all  deaths— that  of  starvation, 
daily  becoming  a  more  appalling  spectacle,  a  more  frightful  spectre 
of  humanity ,-^going  down  in  a  prolonged  agony  by  a  process  of 
inanition  to  the  grave.  I  speak  not  from  the  evidence  of  other 
people's  eyes  or  observation,  nor  do  I  speak  Ughtly  or  on  insufficient 
grounds,  on  this  grave  subject,  when  I  solemnly  affirm,  to  the  best 
of  my  beUef  and  knowledge,  that  society  in  the  whole  of  the  \yest 
and  very  largely  in  the  south  of  Ireland  is  at  this  moment  in  a 
state  of  disorganization  brought  on  by  destitution  and  eviction,  ap- 


34G  MEMOIRS 


proacbing  fast  to  a  dissolution  of  all  its  bonds.  A  man  who  knows 
well  the  condition  of  the  people,  has  elsewhere  observed  : — 

"  Perhaps  when  the  Celtic  race  has  passed  away,  the  future 
archteologist,  in  poring  over  these  accounts  of  famine  and  eviction, 
will  deny  their  authenticity,  and  maintain  that,  in  an  age  of  civili- 
zation, and  in  a  country  not  devastated  by  war,  but  abounding  with 
the  fruits  of  nature,  it  was  impossible  that  men  should  sink  into 
the  grave  unnoticed  and  unremembered.  But  the  very  brutes  of 
the  held  which  are  now  feeding  where  the  wives  and  children  of 
the  peasant  and  the  farmer  once  gathered  round  the  domestic 
hearth — the  kite  and  the  ravenous  dog  that  have  feasted  upon  their 
unburied  corpses, — these  bear  witness  to  the  immensity  of  that 
calamity  which  no  tongue  but  that  of  an  angel's  could  adequately 
describe.  For  I  have  a  strong  conviction  that  the  height,  the 
depth,  the  immensity  of  that  distress  never  can  be  known  until  the 
recording  angel  shall  produce  his  official  report  on  the  day  of  Judg- 
ment." 

We  may  now  go  back  to  Kilrush. — The  task  of  deciding  on  the 
appHcations  for  admission  into  the  workhouse  on  the  occasion  I 
have  referred  to  required  indeed  no  ordinary  degree  of  mental  com- 
posure. The  consideration  of  the  claims  of  each  batch  of  famine- 
stricken  paupers  that  was  admitted,  was  made  amidst  a  din  of 
frightful  sounds  of  human  voices,  expressive  of  entreaty,  remons- 
trance and  authority,  or  else  on  theotherhandof  suffering,  of  mortal 
anxiety,  and  of  despair — screams  of  children  admitted  being  taken 
away  from  mothers,  shrieks  of  daughters  parting  with  fathers  whom 
they  knew  they  would  never  see  again,  sobs  and  moans  of  women  about 
to  be  separated  from  their  husbands  : — a  babel  of  shrieks  and  suppli- 
cations. Amidst  these  cries,  that  of  a  poor  child  about  eleven  years 
of  age  (a  fine,  intelligent  looking  boy  as  I  ever  saw),  all  the  time  I  was 
in  that  hall  prevailed  over  the  others,  exclaiming — "  Ah,  mammy, 
mammy  ;  don't  leave  me,  mammy.  I  won't  stay  here  without  you. 
Oh,  mammy,  dear,  sure  you  won't  leave  me  in  this  place  !  "  I 
heard  one  of  the  guardians  speak  to  the  child  two  or  three  words — 
kind  and  soothing  words.  This  gentleman's  name  I  learned  was 
Keane.  He  is  an  ex-officio  guardian,  and  I  feel  bound  to  say  thus 
much,  because  I  know  there  are  many  such  men  who,  though  not 
popular,  are  more  humane  than  they  apparently  care  to  be  deemed. 
Behold,  then,  the  multitude  of  paupers— by  some  described  as 
some  thousands,  by  me  as  exceeding  one  thousand  in  number — 
congregated  on  one  day  round  the  Poorhouse  of  Kilrush,  clamour- 
ing for  admission — and  then  inquire  into  the  result  of  their  impor- 
tunities. Of  that  multitude  of  famishing  people,  209  were  ad- 
mitted on  this  occasion,  and  outdoor  relief  was  given  to  widows 
with  two  or  more  children,  in  Indian  corn  meal,  in  value  to  the 
amount  of  £7  7s.  3d.  !  !  !    The  numbers  who  received  this  outdoor 


BU.    R.    K.    :\rADDEN'.  247 


relief  were  523,  and  the  value  of  the  meal  given  to  each  "  widow 
with  two  or  more  children  "  was  under  3^d.  But  w^hat  became  of 
the  hundreds  who  received  neither  indoor  nor  outdoor  relief? 
Numbers  of  them  slept  that  night  under  the  shelter  of  hedges  in 
the  ditches  outside  the  town,  and  some  were  suffered  to  sleep,  with- 
out a  rag  to  cover  them,  or  a  wisp  of  straw  to  lie  upon,  under  the 
arches  and  the  porch  of  the  Market  House.  On  the  occasion  I 
refer  to  there  were  4,858  inmates  in  the  Kilrush  Poorhouse  and  its 
eight  auxiliaries,  and  with  those  admitted  that  day,  viz.,  309,  the 
number  was  increased  to  5,067.  I  asked  for  a  weekly  return  of 
the  inmates  and  the  deaths  from  the  latter  end  of  December  1850, 
to  the  beginning  of  February  1851,  of  which  the  following  is  the 
substance  : 

Week  ending  December  28th,  1850 

„  January  4th        1851 

„  January  11th         ,, 

„  January  18th         „ 

„  January  25th         ,, 

,,  February  1st         ,, 

„  February  6th         ,, 

March  8th  1851 
March  15th  1851 
And  since  then  it  has  increased  to 

I  was  also  then  furnished  with  the  following  official  returns,  the 
importance  of  which  is  greater  than  might  be  imagined  by  a  mere 
cursory  glance  at  them. 

Number  of  deaths  for  year  ended  29th  Sept.  1849  .  505 

Ditto  for  year  ended  29th  September  1850               .  .  1392 

Number  of  admissions  for  year  ended  29th  Sept.  1849  .  8089 

Ditto  for  year  ended  29th  September  1850      .         .  .  12670 

The  highest  rate  made  in  this  Union  was  6s.  6d.  in  the  pound. 
The  current  rate  varies  from  6s.  6d.  to  8s.  6d.  The  average  cost 
of  a  pauper  per  w^ek  was  lOd.  In  another  return  a  very  compe- 
tent authority  observes — "  The  average  cost  of  a  pauper  per  week, 
including  hospital  and  infirmary  patients,  is  10|d.  I  should  say 
those  m  the  house  do  not  cost  8d.  per  week  each."  Eigbtpence  for 
the  sustenance  of  a  human  being  of  adult  age  for  seven  days  !  !  ! 
Let  us  see  how  this  expenditure  is  met. 

[Here  in  the  manuscript  before  us  follow  ten  folio  pages  of  in- 
formation with  reference  to  population,  area,  and  valuation  of  the 
twelve  Poor-Law  divisions  reported  on,  the  dietary  for  each  class  of 
inmates  in  Kilrush  and  other  Irish  workhouses,  and  comparative  tables 
shewing  the  treatment  of  similar  classes  in  various  English  country 


[nmates. 

Deaths. 

4315 

24 

4569 

14 

4997 

17 

4956 

25 

4869 

35 

4981 

51 

5067 

30 

,    , 

56 

. 

68 

,    , 

72 

248  MEMOIRS 


London  workhouses.      For  these  tables  the  limits  of  this  work  do 
not  however  afford  sufficient  space.] 

The  present  dietary  of  the  English  workhouees,  it  is  well  known, 
has  been  reduced  to  the  smallest  amount  of  nutritious  food  deemed 
sufficient  to  maintain  life  in  health  and  strength.  We  now  proceed 
to  compare  the  actual  amount  of  food,  animal,  vegetable  and  far- 
inaceous, of  an  adult  male  Enghsh  pauper  for  one  week  in  the  St. 
Pancras  workhouse,  with  the  quantity  of  food  given  to  an  Irish 
adult  pauper  in  the  Kilrush  Union  workhouse,  premising  that  the 
data  for  the  facts  in  regard  to  both  are  obtained  from  official 
returns.  .  .  . 


ONE   week's    food    FOR    AN   ADULT    PAUPER  IN    ST.    PANCDAS'    WORKHOUSE,    AND 
IN     KILRUSH   POORHOUSE. 


In  the  Kilrush  dietary,  then,  we  look  in  vain  for  animal  food,  for 
vegetables,  for  milk,  and  indeed  for  brend  fit  for  the  food  of  man. 
It  were  well  that  guardians  understood  (iistinctly  that  humanity  is 
not  differently  constituted  in  Ireland  to  \\  bat  it  is  in  England.  Is 
there  one  law  of  nature  regulating  the  functions  of  a  man  in  an 
English  Poorhouse  and  another  controUiug  the  digestive  organs  and 
vital  powers  of  an  Irish  pauper?  It  may  be  sometimes  forgotten, 
but  should  never  be  unknown,  that  there  is  but  one  law  of  God  for 
the  observance  of  all  rulers,  and  the  protection  of  the  poor  of  all  climes ; 
and  when  that  law  is  signally  violated  in  their  persons,  there  is  no 
amount  of  sophistry  that  can  fritter  away  the  responsibility  or  guilt 
of  a  great  crime  against  humanity. 

To  my  inquiry  of  the  proper  authority  on  the  subject  of  the  state 
of  health  of  the  inmates,  the  written  answer  was — "  Dysentery 
and  diarrhoea  very  prevalent  at  present,  which  is  attributed  to  the 
dietary  and  the  overcrowding  of  the  houses."  In  the  official  Minute 
Book  I  found  the  following  Report,  made  by  the  medical  officer  of 
the  Board,  at  the  period  of  the  awful  increase  of  the  mortality  in 
this  Institution. — 

"  Gentlemen, — I  beg  to  bring  the  present  overcrowded  state  of 
the  infirmary  under  your  especial  notice,  with  a  view  of  adding 
additional  wards  or  apartments  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  sick. 


Meat  Bread  Vegetables  Stirrabout  Milk  Porridge  Soup  Pud'g  Cheese  Beer  Milk  Cocoa 
18oz.  92oz.      06  oz.                             14i  Pints       6Pt9l2oz.     C  oz.      IIP    — 

29  oz.  Meal 

112                              56  oz. 
Indian 
Meal  in 

14  Pints 

contain'g  2oz. 

oatml.  &  2oz.                                     8  Pts. 

vegetables, 
each  pint  say 
56  ounces. 

DE.    E.    E.    MADDEX.  949 


I  regret  to  say  that  sickness  is  very  much  on  the  increase,  its 
spread  being  principally  amongst  the  old  and  infirm  and  the  very 
young. 

"  The  mortality  is  so  frightfully  high,  and  so  many  of  the  o'd 
and  infirm  are  dropping  off,  in  many  instances  somewhat  suddenly, 
that  I  must  urgently  impress  the  necessity  of  allowing  a  sufficient 
supply  of  milk  for  breakfast  instead  of  the  cocoa  now  used. 

"  The  sick,  both  in  the  infirmary  and  in  the  hospital,  are  not 
getting  the  prescribed  quantity  of  milk — the  nurses  say  that  they 
are  from  150  to  180  quarts  a  day  short.  This  should  be  supplied, 
if  possible,  as  it  is  their  chief  nutriment. 

"  Signed, 

"  T.   S.  B.  O'DONNELL." 

This  gentleman  did  his  duty  to  his  God,  to  his  patients,  and  to  his  em- 
ployers :  he  pointed  out  the  means  of  stopping  the  ravages  made  by  an 
insufficient  dietary,  and  consequent  on  overcrowding  in  the  several 
houses.  If  that  terrible  mortality  went  on  unchecked,  the  fault 
was  not  his.  No  change  was  made  in  consequence  of  this  protest. 
Great  evils  were  predicted  from  a  persistence  in  the  existing  diet- 
ary. That  dietary  was  persisted  in — the  predictions  were  accom- 
plished. The  people  were  carried  off"  in  numbers  unheard  of 
before  in  any  Poorhouse.  The  guardians  are  answerable  for  this 
mortality.  In  the  parent  house  as  well  as  in  the  auxiliaries,  ma- 
terial order  and  cleanliness  are  carefully  attended  to,  but  a  proper 
understanding  of  the  means  essential  for  securing  moral  order,  in- 
culcating habits  of  industry,  restoring  debilitated  energies  of  mind 
and  body,  resisting  formidable  tendencies  to  disease,  and  proLmging 
life,  are  not  observable  in  the  government  of  any  of  these  houses. 
But  above  all  evils  prevailing  in  their  management,  the  monster 
evil  of  the  Kilrush  Poorhouses  is  insufficient  food.  The  diet  may  bo 
said  to  be  wholly  farinaceous ;  and  I  have  elsewhere  observed  that 
human  beings  cooped  up  in  crowded  places,  constantly  breathing  an 
infected  atmosphere,  debarred  from  active  exercise,having  no  manual 
labour,  and  no  means  of  maintaining  or  renovating  impaired 
strength  by  either,  cannot  long  be  kept  in  health,  or  in  life,  on  this 
diet.  When,  moreover,  the  farinaceous  food  is  of  a  bad  kind,  the 
digestive  and  then  the  vital  powers  even  of  the  strongest  will  gra- 
dually break  down  ;  whilst  those  of  the  infirm,  the  very  young,  and 
the  very  old,  will  utterly  and  speedily  fail ;  and  these  persons  will 
pine  away  and  die  with  as  much  certainty  as  if  they  had  been 
taken  off  by  poison.  You  kill  men  by  half  feeding  as  effectually 
as  if  you  took  their  blood  by  stabbing ;  and  you  destroy  life  by  a 
process  which  kills  still  more  effectually  and  more  rapidly  when  the 
scanty    supply    of  food  is  of   a  bad  quality.     The  bread  of  the 


250  MEMOIRS 

Kili'Lish  Union  poorliouse  and  its  auxiliaries  is  not  fit  for  the  food 
of  man — at  least  it  was  not  so  two  months  ago.  It  is  composed  of 
equal  parts  of  rye  and  barley,  and  is  black,  clammy,  badly  baked, 
unsio-htly,  and  distasteful.  When  I  pressed  my  fingers  on  it,  the 
soft  part  pitted  as  if  it  were  a  mass  of  putty.  I  heard  several  of 
the  paupers  declare  they  could  not  eat  it.  And  Avhilst  I  was  pre- 
sent, orders  were  charitably  given  by  the  medical  officer  for  the  re- 
moval of  two  languid-looking  l;ovs  from  one  of  the  auxiliaries  to 
the  infirmary,  with  the  view,  I  believe,  of  furnishing  them  there 
with  food  that  was  more  fit  for  them.  It  must  be  observed,  though  the 
doctor  has  the  power  of  ordering  wine  and  porter  to  the  sick  in 
hospital,  he  has  not  the  power  of  changing  the  diet  of  the  infirm 
unless  he  takes  them  into  hospital.  The  accommodation  there  is 
extremely  limited,  the  number  of  the  infirm  is  very  great,  and  this 
may  be  accounted  one  cause  of  the  enormous  mortality  that  has 
taken  place  here. 

The  diet,  I  repeat,  is  insufficient  for  the  maintenance  of  life  in 
health  for  a  period  of  many  weeks.  It  is  scanty  in  quantity  and  bad 
in  quality.  There  is  not  a  due  admixture  of  vegetable  substan- 
ces with  the  farinaceous  food.  There  are,  in  fact,  no  vegetable  sub- 
stances used  at  all,  except  in  the  water  whitened  with  meal,  which 
is  termed  soup  in  the  dietary,  and  in  this  liquid  turnips  or  parsnips, 
in  very  small  quantities  are  allowed.  The  small  allow^ance  of  milk, 
which  in  other  Poorhouses  counteracted  the  evil  eff'ects  of  an  otherwise 
exclusively  farinaceous  diet,  here  unfortunately  was  substituted  in  the 
case  of  adults  by  cocoa,  and  in  the  case  of  the  children  was  either 
reduced  to  half  the  quantity,  or,  in  some  cases,  wholly  withheld, 
and  substituted  by  a  composition  called  artificial  milk,  which  could 
serve  no  purpose  with  regard  to  nutriment,  or  as  a  corrective  of 
food  wholly  farinaceous. 

If  the  cost  of  each  pauper  was  increased  to  the  amount  of  14d.  or 
15d.  per  week  for  his  sustenance,  by  procuring  the  milk  necessary 
for  his  health,  and  to  which  he  was  entitled,  the  Union  would  in  all 
probability  be  saved  the  expense  of  some  of  the  alcoholic  stimulants 
which  the  doctor  is  allowed  to  prescribe  for  the  sick  and  dying  in 
hospital  The  Union  might  be  saved  also  the  expense  of  a  vast 
number  of  coffins,  the  cost  of  which  varies  from  2s.  6d.  for  the 
larc^e  to  Is.  lOd.  for  the  small.  The  gratuity  likewise  might  be 
spared  that  is  allowed  the  pauper  who  daily  conveys  the  cart  load 
of  the  Poorhouse  dead  to  the  wide-mouthed  trench  that  yawns  in 
the  churchyard  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town.  There  are  other  con- 
siderations I  am  aware  unfavourable  to  this  view  of  the  question. 
But  on  the  supposition  that  the  life  of  a  human  being  is  of  more 
importance  than  any  saving  that  can  be  effected  by  a  cessation  of 
the  cost  that  his  maintenance  in  life  may  have  occasioned,  I  find 
it  difficult  to  conclude  that  the  economy  that  has  been  practised 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  951 


here  ought  to  be  imitated  elsewhere,  or  suffered  to  be  continued  in 
this  place  in  the  face  of  the  awfulmortality  co-existent  with  it,  or  of 
the  protest  against  the  former  of  the  Poorhouse  medical  officer  re 
corded  on  the  Minutes  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Board  of  Guardians : — 

There  are  no  stated  times  for  parents  to  see  their  children,  but 
occasionally  they  may  see  them.  There  are  no  fixed  times  for  re- 
latives to  see  their  dying  friends,  but,  if  they  come  they  are  al- 
lowed to  see  them. 

The  Leadmore  auxiliary  house  is  destined  for  children  from  9  to 
16  years  of  age.  On  the  6th  of  February  last,  the  number  of  the 
inmates,  including  42  adults  who  acted  as  attendants,  was  1851. 
There  is  no  industrial  employment  in  any  of  the  Kilrush  Houses, 
none  here  except  that  of  a  few  children  who  were  engaged  in 
mending  clothes,  and  about  twenty  others  who  were  occupied  in  the 
courtyard  at  the  period  1  refer[to,  making  up  small  heaps  of  manure. 
There  was  a  school,  however,  attached  to  this  auxiliary,  and  several 
hundred  children  were  present.  The  teacher,  Mr.  Mahony,  evi- 
dently had  taken  great  pains  with  the  children,  and  some  of  the 
classes  did  great  credit  to  the  efforts  of  their  instructor.  But  the 
painful  consideration  was  forced  on  the  mind — of  what  avail  was 
this  book  learning  likely  to  be  to  these  pauper  children  without  in- 
dustrial training  ? 

The  clotbing  of  a  vast  number  of  these  boys  was  so  bad  that  it 
might  be  supposed  their  old  rags  had  not  been  taken  from  them. 
8uch,  I  believe,  was  not  the  fact.  In  the  house  for  the  female 
children  in  this  establishment  there  were  951  inmates.  The  clo- 
thing of  the  girls  was,  if  possible,  worse  than  that  of  the  boys. 

The  master  of  the  Leadmore  auxiliary,  an  intelligent  and  appar- 
ently a  humane  person,  Mr.  B.  Foley,  lamented  there  was  no  em- 
ployment for  the  inmates.  There  was  no  spinning,  there  was  no 
sewing  except  by  about  twelve  or  fifteen  children.  Some  time  ago 
there  were  94  girls  employed  at  knitting,  which  has  been  introduced 
at  his  instance.  He  had  prevailed  on  the  guardians  to  advance  30s. 
for  materials,  and  this  was  the  whole  cost  of  the  experiment  to  the 
Union.  But  it  was  given  up,  because  he  could  get  no  buyers  in 
the  town  for  the  stockings.  In  the  house  none  are  given  to  the 
paupers,  nor  shoes  either  to  men,  women,  or  children.  The  chil- 
dren were  all  of  the  fourth  class — from  9  to  15  years  of  age.  Their 
diet  w^as  as  follows  : — 

Morning  Meal, 

5ozs.  Indian  meal  in  stirrabout,  1  naggin  of  new  milk,  1  naggin 
of  artificial  niilk,  composed  of  {  oz.  of  flour  and  ^  oz.  of  ground 
rice  mixed  up  and  toiled  in  water. 


252  ME  MO  IBS 


Dinner. 

Brown  bread  10  ounces — the  same  given  to  paupers  of  all  classes 
— composed  of  rye  and  barley  in  equal  parts,  and  1  pint  ard  a  half 
of  soup  or  porridge,  consisting  of  1|  oz.  of  oatmeal,  som^  parsni})s 
and  turnips,  and  a  little  salt  and  pepper. 

Supi^er 

Brown  bread,  4  oz. 

There  is  no  infirmary  in  the  Leadmore  auxiliary.  The  children 
when  they  fall  sick  must  be  removed  to  the  parent  house  infirmary. 
The  diet  cannot  be  altered  in  this  House,  so  that  when  ailing  be- 
fore they  are  sent  to  the  infirmary,  which  is  at  some  distance,  they 
must  remain  on  the  common  diet.  There  is  the  same  want  here 
that  exists  in  all  the  Irish  Poorhouses — the  want  of  all  opportunity 
for  air  and  exercise  in  places  fit  for  children's  amusement  out  of 
doors.  The  children,  from  the  want  of  suitable  day  sheds  in 
wet  weather,  are  cooped  up  all  day  in  the  school-room  ;  but  every 
morning  they  are  sent  down  to  the  river-side  at  the  rere  of  the  pre- 
mises to  wash  their  leet.  The  dormitories  of  this  house  are  only 
7i  ft.  high  ;  those  in  the  building  called  "the  store"  are  only  four 
or  five;  those  in  the  house  for  girls  called  "  the  cottage"  are  nearly 
11  feet  in  height.  The  number  of  boys  crowded  together  in  four 
dormitories,  namely,  84(3,  is  far  too  great  for  the  space,  and  as  in 
the  female  dormitories — three  sleep  in  one  bed.  Notwithstanding 
the  original  defects  of  those  buildings  of  Leadmore, — never  inten- 
ded for  the  purposes  to  which  they  have  been  converted, — all  that 
could  possibly  be^effected  to  render  them  more  fit  for  those  purposes 
was  done  by  a  gentleman  connected  for  three  years  with  the  affairs  of 
the  Union.  This  gentleman,  Captain  Kennedy,  to  whom  all  ar- 
rangements of  any  good  kind  existing  in  the  Leadmore  Poorhouse 
are  due,  has  gained  his  honours  dearly  indeed  for  his  own  quiet  and 
repose,  like  all  men  who  light  great  battles  for  humanity ;  but  those 
honours  wdll  wear  well  and  last  longer  than  the  remembrance  of 
any^vain  efforts  to  decr}^  them.  A  word  or  two,  in  conclusion,  of  the 
Poorhouse  dead  that  for  the  three  last  weeks  of  March  amounted 
to  919.  The  dead  are  interred  every  morning  in  a  churchyard 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  town.  The  bodies  are  carted 
away  without  any  appearance  of  a  funeral  ceremony  :  no  attendance 
of  priest  or  parson,  no  pall.  The  cofhns — if  the  frail  boards  nailed 
together  for  the  remains  of  paupers  may  be  so  called — are  made  by 
contract,  and  furnished  "  at  a  very  low  figure."  The  paupers' 
trench  in  a  corner  of  the  churchyard,  which  I  visited,  is  a  large 
pit,  the  yawning  aperture  about  twenty  feet  square.  The  dead  are 
deposited  in  layers,  and  over  each  coffin  a  little  earth  is  thinly 
scattered,  just  sufficient  to  conceal  the  boards.     The  thickness  of 


m\.    R.    K.   MADDEN.  23S 


this  covering  of  clay  I  found  did  uot  amount  to  two  inches  over  the 
last  tier  of  cofl&ns  deposited  there.  A  pauper  who  drives  the  cart, 
and  another  who  accompanies  him  to  assist  in  taking  the  coffins 
from  that  conveyance,  and  slipping  them  down  into  the  trench,  are 
the  only  funeral  attendants.  It  is  very  rare  that  any  of  the  kith 
or  kin  of  a  pauper  accompany  his  remains  to  the  grave,  because 
there  are  so  many  deaths,  and  so  much  difficulty  in  ascertaining 
anything  about  the  identity  of  such  a  multitude  of  paupers  as  those 
amounting  to  half  a  hundred  or  more  who  die  in  a  week,  that  it  is 
seldom  anything  is  known  of  the  deaths  in  the  Poorhouse  b}^  the 
friends  outside,  if  any  there  be  left,  until  long  after  they  have  taken 
place. 

The  Abbe  Bergier,  in  his  "  Dictionnaire  de  Theologie"  (Art. 
funerailles.  Tome  3,  page  453),  inveighs  against  the  barbarity  of  the 
Romans,  as  it  is  found  exhibited  in  the  contempt  with  which  they 
treated  the  poor  and  enslaved,  who,  dying  without  the  means  of 
defraying  the  charges  of  funeral  expenses,  were  buried  like  dogs. 
This  conduct  of  their's,  he  says  :  "  Est  une  preuve  de  leur  barbaric 
et  de  leur  sot  orgueil,  car  quand  on  use  de  cruante  envers  des  morts 
on  n,est  pas  dispose  a  mettre  beaucoup  d'humanite  enver  les  vivans." 
Ah  !  good  Abbe  Bergier,  what  necessity  would  you  have  had  for 
ransacking  the  graves  of  the  old  Romans  for  evidences  of  barbarity 
connected  with  the  modes  of  disposing  of  the  remains  of  the  poor, 
had  you  lived  in  our  day  and  visited  the  Kilrusli  Union  ! 

"  Nothing,"  says  Charles  Lamb,  "  tends  more  to  keep  up  in  the 
imaginations  of  the  poorest  sort  of  peo])le  a  grievous  horror  of  the 
workhouses  than  the  manner  in  which  pauper  funerals  are  con- 
ducted in  this  metropolis."*  This  was  said  of  pauper  burials  in 
England,  where  still  there  is  some  semblance  of  respect  for  the 
dead — some  affectation  of  sympathy  with  the  poor.  But  what 
would  Charles  Lamb  say  of  pauper  burials  in  this  Christian  land 
of  ours  if  he  witnessed  one  in  the  churchyard  of  Kilrush  ? 

-  X."— (R.  R.  Madden). 

P.S. — To  have  witnessed  the  scenes  that  have  come  in  the  way 
of  my  o!)servation  in  Irish  Poorliouses,  and  to  have  been  silent, 
would  have  been  a  crime,  with  something  of  the  guilt  of  blood  in  it. 
It  cannot  now  be  said  in  England  that  the  horrors  that  have  taken 
place  here  have  been  totally  ignored.  It  ought  not  to  be  said 
here — "  The  crimes  of  this  land  are  wafted  with  impunity  on  the 
sea." 

"  Eunt  'ntis  terrarum  crimina  velis  I  " 

Of  myself  and  my  uini  I  will  only  say — I  am  not  of  the  number 
of  those  who  are  perpetually  troubling  public  attention.    I  have  no 

*  The  Works  of  Charles  Lamb — ♦*  Letters  on  Burial  Societies.' 


254  MEMOiiis 


applause  to  gain,  no  personal  objects  to  promote,  no  feelings  of  re- 
sentment to  gratify,  by  taking  the  course  I  have  done.  I  therefore 
come  forward  without  fear,  with  full  confidence,  and  a  strong  faith 
in  the  power  of  truth  and  God's  protection  for  it,  and  denounce 
acts  which  appear  to  me  to  be  great  crimes  against  humanity. 
February  7th,  1851.  ''X." 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 


SUBSEQUE^'TLY     PUBLISHED      WORKS. — VISIT     TO     PAKIS. INTERVIEW 

WITH    DE    LAMENAIS    IN    1852. 

Dr.  Madden's  first  work  after  his  return  from  Australia  was  a 
volume  of  poetry,  original  and  selected,  which  he  edited,  entitled 
— The  Easter  Offering  ;  Memorials  of  those  Who  Were,  and  are 
Not,"  published  by  Duffy,  Dublin,  1851,  and  posthumously  re- 
printed in  1887.  "At  this  festive  time  of  Easter,"  observes  the 
editor,  "  it  is  not  fit  we  should  '  shroud  and  pall'  our  thoughts  in 
solenni  gloom  ;  neither  is  it  meet,  in  the  midst  of  its  festivities,  we 
should  forget  those  we  loved  or  honoured,  who  were  in  life  and 
health  perhaps  when  we  last  celebrated  this  festival,  or  that  which 
preceded  it,  and  who  now  are  dwellers  in  the  narrow  house — the 
long  last  home  of  all  humanity  !  The  object  of  this  little  work  is 
to  solace  the  feehngs  of  those  who  have  sustained  losses  of  beloved 
friends,  to  enliven  the  only  hopes  that  can  reconcile  us  to  a  separ- 
ation from  our  dead.  The  remembrance  of  Easter  is  associated  in 
every  Christian  land  with  ideas  of  immortality,  triumph,  and  ex- 
ultation. There  are  many,  however,  for  whom  the  recurrence  of 
this  festival  is  fraught  with  mournful  reminiscences,  to  whom  the 
spirit-stirring  tones  of  the  Paschal  hymn  will  be  as  the  harmony  of 
mingled  strains  of  hope  and  sorrow.  The  pieces  of  poetry  collected 
in  this  volume  are  of  a  character  suitable  to  the  reflections  of  such 
persons.  They  may  serve  to  shew  how  others  have  been  affected 
by  the  shafts  of  death  that  pierced  those  nearest  and  dearest  to 
them — how  they  endeavoured  to  moderate  the  pain  of  loss  and  sepa- 
ration in  communing  with  the  shadows  of  the  dead  and  how  they 
sought  consolation  in  thus  clothing  in  living  verse,  their  conceptions 
of  departed  worth  and  excellence." 

In  1852  our  author  brought  out,  in  two  large  octavo  volumes, 
T/ie  Shrines  and  Sepulchres  of  the  Old  and  New  World,  pub- 
lished by  T.  C.  Newby,  London.  Of  this  work  one  of  the  reviews 
of  the  time  observed  : — 


DR.    B.    S.    MADDEN.  255 


"  It  required  an  amount  of  curious  and  protracted  study  for 
which  few  possess  aptness  or  opportunity,  and  a  knowledge  of 
strange  countries  which  perhaps  no  one  in  Europe  has  combined  of 
an  equal  extent  with  Dr.  Madden,  to  undertake  a  work  such  to 
that  before  us,  and,  when  undertaken,  to  ensure  such  success  in  it 
as  our  author  has  attained.  Nothing  that  could  have  thrown  light 
upon  the  singular  and  interesting  subject  of  his  researches  seems 
to  have  escaped  his  attention.  He  quotes  books  which  none  but 
the  most  industrious  of  the  learned  would  have  discovered  ;  and  at 
the  same  time,  it  is  quite  evident  that  nothing  on  these  subjects 
that  has  issued  from  the  press,  of  recent  years,  is  unknown  to  him. 
As  a  pilgrim  of  many  wanderings — a  thoughtful  and  enlightened 
traveller  who  has  visited  almost  every  couutry  on  the  globe,  our 
author's  peculiar  advantages  for  undertaking  such  a  work  as  the 
present  are  of  still  more  importance  to  his  readers  than  his  im- 
mense literary  researches.  Thus  was  the  author  prepared  to  write 
about  the  Shrines  and  Sepulchres  of  the  Old  and  Neiv  World ; 
and  to  collect  into  a  single  work  all  that  it  is  most  interesting  to 
know  about  the  monuments  of  the  dead,  and  the  sacred  rites  and 
customs  and  popular  superstitions  connected  with  death,  which 
have  distinguished  all  the  principal  nations  of  ancient  and  modern 
times.  This  work,  in  line,  may  be  described  as  one  of  the  most 
curious  and  interesting  tbat  has  issued  from  the  press  in  these 
countries  for  a  long  while  past." 

In  the  subject  matter  of  the  volumes  just  referred  to,  as  in  some 
of  his  earlier  works,  was  evinced  that  reverence  for  the  memorials 
of  the  dead  which  was  one  of  Dr.  Madden's  special  traits,  and  which 
in  former  years  had  led  him  to  seduously  search  out  and  restore  the 
forgotten  or  neglected  graves  of  the  Sheares.*  of  Wolf  Tone, 
Anne  Devlin,  and  of  others  connected  with  the  Rebellion  of  '98,  as 
he  did  from  sentiments  akin  to  those  delineated  by  the  master  hand 
of  Scott  in  his  immortal  portraiture  of  Old  Morality.  This  zealous 
veneration  for  the  memory  of '  Those  who  Were  and  are  Not '  is  well 
reflected  in  the  following  lines — 

*  Copy  of  a  Mcmoianclum  by  W.  Powell  of  New-Row.—"  On  this  day,  the  18th  January 
1842, 1  accompanied  Doctor  Madden  to  St.  Michans  Church,  Church-street,  Dublin,  where  he 
brought  two  oak  cofiiiis,  each  containing  a  shell  coffin  and  a  lead  coffin,  which  he  had  taken 
down  to  the  first  vault  on  the  south  side  of  the  Church,  and  the  first  cb amber  on  the  right 
hand  side,  where  the  remains  of  Henry  and  John  Sheares,  lay  in  shattered  coffins,  and  he, 
Dr.  Madden,  with  his  own  hands,  assisted  in  removing  and  placing  the  bones  or  dismembered 
parts  of  each  into  new  coffins,  and  the  head  of  John  Shearee,  (particulars  of  which  he  describes 
in  his  work  of  the  United  Irishmen),  ^vMch  he  brought  in  a  tin  canister  with  lock  and  key,  he 
deposited  in  the  coffin  with  John  Sheare's  remains,  then  had  both  coffins  soldered  ui>,  and 
breast  plates  with  age,  names,  and  day  of  death  put  upon  them.  The  coffins  are  placed  in 
the  upper  end  of  said  rhanTier  on  the  right  hand  side.  There  is  in  the  same  chamber,  the 
remains  of  a  Nun,  a  Miss  Crooicshauk,  as  described  in  the  work  of  Dr.  Madden,  the  body  is 
partly  whole,  particularly  from  her  thighs  down,  and  from  her  head  to  shoulders."  Mr. 
Geraghty  of  Anglcsea-street  was  also  present.— W.  Powell." 

The  writer  of  the  above  Memorandum,  Mr  William  Powell,  a  relative  of  Dr.  Madden's,  was 
at  that  time  a  well-knowu  Catholic  publisher  in  Dublin. 


MEMOIRS 


:.IEiIOPJALS    OF   THE    I;EAD. 

'Tis  not  alone  in  "  hallowed  ground," 

At  every  step  we  tread, 
■jli'lrl  t<.;nLs  and  sepulchres  arc  found 
•  Memorials  of  the  dead. 

'Tis  not  in  sacred  shrines  alone, 

Or  trophies  proudly  spread, 
On  old  Cathedral  walls  are  shown 

Memorials  of  the  dead. 

Emblems  of  fame  surmounting  death, 

Of  war  and  carnage  dread — 
They  were  not  in  times  of  Faith, 

Memorials  of  the  dead. 

From  marble  bust  and  pictured  traits 

The  Jiving  looks  recede, 
Thej'  fade  away — so  frail  are  these 

Memorials  of  the  dead. 

On  mural  slabs,  names  loved  of  yore 

Can  now  be  scarcely  read : 
A  few  brief  years  have  left  no  more 

^lemorials  of  the  dead. 

Save  those  which  pass  from  si-rc  to  son, 

Traditions  that  are  bred 
In  the  heart's  core,  and  make  thtir  own 

Memorials  of  the  dead.  R.  R.  M. 

In  August  1859,  Dr.  Madden  had  occasion,  in  connexion  with 
family  affairs,  to  revisit  Paris,  Avhere  he  then  renewed  his  acquaint- 
ance with  Berauger  and  deLamenais.  "  On  the  16th  August  1852, 
he  called  on  his  old  friend  the  Ahbe  de  Lamenais  at  his  apartments, 
18,  Rue  de  Montpelier.  Lamenais  spoke  of  the  then  recent  coup 
d'etat  and  of  Louis  Napoleon  in  a.  tone  of  sarcastic  })ersi9age,  and 
of  the  failuro  of  the  constitutional  sj^stem  and  downfall  of  the  party 
he  had  been  allied  with,  in  tones  of  bitter  irony.  When  his  visitor 
said  that  for  half  a  century  perhaps  the  military  absolute  regime 
would  exist,  Lamenais  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  said — '  Non 
Monsieur  :  les  hommes  de  la  revolution  sent  abattus  mais  la  revo- 
lution ;  C'est  a  dire  I'Empire  des  opinions  liberales  marchent  et 
fout  de  progres  toujours.  Louis  Napoleon  a  fait  son  coup,  et  son 
canaille  a  prohte  de  son  succes.  Que  voulez  vous?  Louis  Napoleon 
n'est  pas  ni  bon  ni  mal,  il  n'aime  ni  la  bon  ni  la  mal,  il  n'aime  que 
soit  maime.'  "  On  the  15th  August  1852,  Dr.  Madden  also  visited 
his  friend  Eeranger  at  his  residence,  15,  Avenue  de  Byron,  and  has 
left  a  long  and  interesting  account  of  Beranger's  views  on  the  then 
recent  coup  cVetat  and  the  future  political  prospects  of  France, 
which  have  been  strangely  verified  by  subsequent  events.  The  full 
notes  of  that  interview,  however,  are  too  extensive  for  insertion  here. 


DS.    E.    E.    MADDEN.  257 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

NOTICE     OF    SOME    OTHER    OF    DR.    MADDEN's    LATER    WORKS. 

The  literary  industry  of  the  subject  of  these  memoirs  was  illus- 
trated by  the  publication,  only  a  year  after  the  book  last  referred  to, 
of  the  Life  and  Times  of  Savonarola,  in  two  vols.  (Newby,  Lon- 
don, 1853),  which  has  been  characterised  by  The  Times,  (February 
8th,  1886),  as  its  author's  "  best  work  as  to  style  and  historical 
interest,  and  that  which  appeals  to  the  largest  class  of  readers." 
A  short  extract  from  the  introduction  to  this  scarce,  and  largely 
plundered  w'ork  may  serve  to  illustrate  its  scope  and  object : — 

"  There  was  a  monk  in  Florence  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century  who  was  of  opinion  that  the  mortal  enemy  of  Christ's 
Gospel,  in  all  ages  of  the  world,  was  mammon  ;  that  the  interests 
of  religion  were  alhed  with  those  of  liberty ;  and  that  the  arts  were 
the  handmaids  of  both,  of  a  Divine  origin,  and  given  to  earth  for 
purposes  that  tended  to  spiritualize  humanity.  Men  of  all  creeds 
who  beheve  in  Christianity  have  an  interest  in  the  life  and  labours 
of  this  monk — Girolama  Savonarola,  of  Ferrara.  It  was  attempted 
in  the  days  of  Savonarola,  and  has  been  tried  in  our  own,  to  give 
this  illustrious  Dominican  the  character  of  a  mere  demagogue,  an 
enthusiast,  a  visionary.  Such  representations  have  been  made  by 
writers  that  almost  worshipped  the  Medici  for  substituting  Platonism 
for  Christianity,  and  but  slightly  acquainted  with  the  science  of  the 
saints,  having  no  sympathies  with  a  Gospel  preached  by  holy  men, 
who  sympathized  with  the  poor  and  the  oppressed  in  their  times, 
and  denounced  hypocrisy,  cupidity,  and  mipiety  in  high  places. 
The  life  of  Savonarola  can  only  be  written  by  a  member  of  the 
Church,  for  the  restoration  of  which  the  great  Italian  Eeformer  of 
the  fifteenth  century  in  the  true  spirit  of  an  apostle — laboured, 
preached,  prayed,  struggled,  and  died  an  heroic  death.  It  can  only 
be  written  by  one  who,  believing  in  his  religion,  discriminates  be- 
tween things  appertaining  to  the  Court,  and  the  tenets,  that  cannot 
be  impugned,  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  who  thinks  the  interests 
of  truth  and  justice  must  not  be  sacrificed  for  any  purpose  what- 
ever. The  writer  of  that  life  should  pray  to  be  preserved  from  con- 
founding reform  with  revolution  ;  from  mistaking  enthusiasm  for 
piety ;  the  great  virtues  of  individuals  for  the  intrinsic  merits  of 
the  cause  they  champion,  or  the  vices  of  rulers,  for  inherent  de- 
fects in  the  constitution  of  a  Government.  He  must  be  careful 
not  to  involve  the  tenets  of  religion  in  the  contumely  arising  from 
any  disorders  of  its  ministers.     In  this  book  Savonarola's  life  hasj 

18 


258  MEMOIRS 


as  far  as  possible  been  elucidated  by  the  light  of  his  own  words 
and  works.  The  possession  of  a  large  collection  of  his  writings  (now 
of  great  rarity),  enables  the  present  biographer  to  thus  make 
Savonarola  the  exponent  of  his  own  opinions,  the  reporter  of  his 
own  labours  for  the  restoration  of  religion  and  the  salvation  of  souls. 
For  the  sake  of  truth  and  justice,  which  conduce  more  than  all 
things  in  this  world  to  the  honour  and  glory  of  God  and  to  the 
good  of  true  religion,  this  life  of  Savonarola  has  been  undertaken, 
with  a  strong  conviction  on  the  mind  of  the  author  that,  to  do 
justice  to  it,  would  be  to  render  a  service  to  his  faith,  and  to  huma- 
nity at  large. 

Dublin,  1st  Jauuary  1853. 

As  already  observed,  the  value  of  this  life  of  Savonarola  is 
attested  not  only  by  the  commendations  of  the  writer's  erudition 
and  successful  treatment  of  a  subject  so  difficult  by  nearly  all  the 
leading  reviews  and  literary  periodicals  of  that  day,  but  still  more 
by  the  very  unsparing  and  unscrupulous  use  that  has  been  since 
made  of  the  labour  and  research  devoted  to  its  production.  These 
volumes  were  dedicated  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  from  whom  the  following 
letter  may  be  here  appended  :  — 

Downing-street,  August  14,  1853. 

Dear  Sir, — I  was  agreeably  surprised  by  finding  through  your  kind  present 
which  reached  me  yesterday,  that  you  had  published  a  work  promising  to 
be  of  the  greatest  interest  on  the  subject  of  Savonarola's  Life  and  Times, 
and  that  you  had  done  me  the  high  honour  of  inscribing  it  to  me.  I  have 
ever  regarded  the  history  of  that  remarkable  man  as  having  received,  at 
least  in  our  day  and  country,  much  less  of  attention  than  it  deserved  by 
their  intrinsic  greatness,  by  their  connexion  with  a  most  critical  period  in 
the  fortunes  of  our  religion  and  race,  and  by  their  bearings  on  the  greatest 
and  deepest  question  of  the  present  day.  We  may  not  all  view  these 
questions  from  precisely  the  same  standing  ground ;  but  what  I  have 
already  read  of  your  book,  and  at  this  comparatively  favourable  season  I 
hope  soon  to  complete  a  regular  perusal  of  it,  warrants  my  anticipating  that 
I  shall  derive  from  so  comprehensive  and  earnest  an  inquiry  no  less  of  in- 
struction than  of  pleasure. 

I  remain,  dear  sir, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 
R.  E.  Madden,  Esq.,  M.R.I. A. 

Two  years  subsequently  Dr.  Madden  brought  out  in  three 
volumes.  The  Literary  Life  and  Correspondence  of  the  Countess  of 
Blessington,  published  by  Newby,  London,  1855. 

"  The  task  I  have  undertaken,"  says  the  author,  "is  to  illustrate 
the  literary  life  of  Lady  Blessington,  and  her  acquaintance  with  the 
literary  men  and  artists  of  England  and  foreign  countries.  It  is 
not  necessary  for  me  here  at  least  to  enter  at  large  into  her  early 
history,  though  with  one  exception,  I  am  probably  better  acquainted 
>Yith  it  than  any  other  person  now  living.  The  whole  of  that  history 


DR.    B.    R.    MADDEN.  259 


was  communicated  to  me  by  Lady  Blessington,  I  believe  with  a  con- 
viction  that  it  might  be   confided  to  me  with  safety,  and  perhaps 

with  advantage  at  some  future  time  to  her  memory I 

hope  in  one  particular  at  least  it  will  be  found  I  have  endeavoured 
to  follow,  even  at  an  humble  distance,  the  example  of  Scott's 
biographer  in  placing  before  my  readers  the  subject  of  my  work  in 
a  life-like,  truthful  manner,  as  she  was  before  the  public,  in  her 
works  and  in  her  saloons,  and  also  in  her  private  relations  towards 
her  friends  and  relatives."  The  best  proof  of  the  successful  man- 
ner in  which  he  availed  himself  of  the  vast  mass  of  documents 
and  letters  of  many  distinguished  persons  entrusted  to  him  for 
this  pui*pose,  is  afforded  by  the  eulogistic  reviews  which  the 
Life  of  Lady  Blessington  received,  and  from  the  great  success 
of  the  work,  which,  though  published  at  a  high  price,  rapidly  passed 
through  successive  editions.  Lady  Blessington' s  Life  was  followed 
by  a  work  of  a  graver  and  longer  enduring  interest  than  the  more 
popular  memoirs  of  that  whildom  centre  of  English  social  and 
literary  life,  viz.,  Phantasmata ;  or,  Illusio7is  and  Fanaticisms  of 
Protean  Form  productive  of  Great  Evils,  which,  in  two  volumes 
was  published  in  1857. — 

"  In  this  work,"  observes  an  Edinburgh  reviewer,  July  1858, 
"  Dr.  Madden  has  given  us  a  laborious  yet  popular  view  of  the 
various  epidemic  manias  that  raged  in  Europe  during  the  middle  ages. 
It  is  a  strange  weird  subject,  profoundly  interesting  as  a  chapter  of 
the  mental  history  of  our  race,  affording  many  important  warnings. 
Dr..  Madden  treats  it  chiefly  as  a  physician,  tracing  its  connection 
with  the  more  familiar  forms  of  insanity,  yet  being  also  a  litterateur, 
he  has  not  neglected  to  present  it  in  such  a  manner  as  to  attract  the 
ordinary  reader  .  .  .  The  Author's  notice  of  the  strange  career  of 
Jeanne  U Arc  is  one  of  the  fullest  and  most  interesting  we  have  as 
yet  encountered,  and  cannot  be  so  well  condensed  as  the  foregoing 
notices  that  we  have  here  abstracted  from  those  pages  to  afford  some 
glances  at  a  series  of  strange  historiettes  which  our  readers  will  find 
in  full  and  interesting  detail  in  Dr.  Madden's  book.  We  close  these 
volumes  of  our  learned  author  with  thanks  for  his  bringing  so  many 
curious  matters  into  a  regular  and  acceptable  form." 

23,  Westbourue  Terrace, 

March  8,  1857. 

My  dear  Madden, — Very  many  thanks  for  your  valuable  present,  and  for 
the  kind  note  which  accompanied  it.  I  have  read  much  of  the  book  already. 
I  respect  (I  should  almost  hazard  the  phrase  I  love)  the  spirit  in  which  it  is 
written,  and  the  justice  which  has  evidently  prompted  it.  As  in  your 
Savonarola,  so  in  this  book  you  are  doing  wisely  and  kindly  (and  I  doubt 

18  • 


960  MEMOIRS 


not  acceptable  to  the  Supreme  Judge),  in  showing  forth  to  the  world,  as  a 
member  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  Rome  indeed,  but  with  words  which 
speak  to  all  Churches  and  to  all  Christian  men,  some  of  the  sources  of  their 
reciprocal  misapprehensions,  and  of  the  hard  thoughts  and  sayings  to  which 
these  give  birth.  It  is  no  little  thing  for  the  Protestant  world  to  discover 
that  a  man  who  lives  in  heartfelt  union  and  commuuiou  wita  your  Church 
can  cherish  such  mental  freedom,  and  give  such  free  utterance  to  it.  Though 
I  am  too  old  to  see  it,  and  though  even  in  your  time  it  will  hardly  be  visible, 
yet  there  will  I  trust  and  believe  come  at  length  a  day  when  "  all  who 
profess  themselves  Christians  "will  make  a  serious  effort  to  discover  how 
far  they  have  been  hitherto  mistaken  about  each  other's  opinions,  how  far 
their  disputes  darkened  the  truth,  and  how  far  their  mutual  forbearance 
and  affection  can  render  them  all  less  impatient  of  the  twilight.  For  what 
we  esteem  to  be  so  true,  as  if  necessary  to  die  for  it  is  quite  consistent  with 
the  toleration  which  has  both  its  root  and  fruit  in  the  love  of  our  Bedeemer 
and  His  members  on  earth ;  and  in  culturing  such  toleration,  you  are  doubt- 
less actmg  in  His  spirit  and  according  to  His  example.  I  doubt  whether 
you  are  not  a  little  severe,  even  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Beauvais.  I  believe  that  each  of  them  were  profoundly  of  opinion  that 
this  poor  Maid  of  Orleans  was  an  agent  and  emissary  of  Satan,  and  though  you 
and  I  are  astounded  both  with  their  premises  and  with  the  practical  in- 
ference which  they  deduced  from  them,  I  doubt  whether,  if  we  had  lived 
400  years  ago,  your  candor  and  my  caution  would  not  have  misled  each  of  us 
to  adopt  their  conclusions.  I  am  exceedingly  glad  to- have  been  spared  the 
trial.  The  subject  of  each  of  your  two  last  books  has  been  admirably 
chosen.  In  the  execution  of  them — so  far  as  I  have  quahfied  myself  to 
form  an  opinion — it  has  been  your  misfortune  to  give  readers  credit  for  too 
much  knowledge,  and  of  the  two  I  would  rather  have  you  descend  to  the 
level  of  the  multitude  than  rise  to  that  of  the  aseendaney.  Forgive  this 
much  of  criticism  which  imputes  to  you  some  share  of  fahbihty. 

Ever  yours. 

James  Stephens. 

In  February,  1858,  with  his  friend  and  relative,  the  late  Mr. 
James  Murphy  of  Mount  Merrion,  Dr.  Madden,  paid  a  brief  visit  to 
the  south  of  Spain,  his  surviving  son,  threatened  with  pulmonary 
disease,  having  been  ordered  to  winter  in  Malaga.  On  their  way 
through  Paris,  a  pilgrimage  to  the  place  where  was  educated  his 
eldest  boy,  the  memory  of  whose  loss  was  ever  present  to  the  last 
moment  of  bis  father's  life,  called  forth  the  following  lines — 

LINES 

WBITTEN   IN   VERSAILLES   IN    1858.  * 

Not  all  of  him  is  lost !     In  memory 
The  vision  of  his  youth  appears  to  me ; 
An  angel's  visit,  that  recalls  the  past 
With  all  its  joys,  too  exquisite  to  last ! 
A  momentary  spark — a  flash  of  light — 
A  shooting  star,  as  transient  and  as  bright ! 
But  all  of  him  in  death,  that  seem'd  was  lost, 
Exists  on  high,  to  be  regain'd,  I  trust. 

♦Written  ten  years  after  the  decease  of  ray  beloved  son,  William  Forde  Madden,on  revisiting  the 
College  Iraperiftie  of  Versailles,  ^here  he  Tvas  educated.— 06 Jt,29th  March,  1848,  cetat,  18,  r.i.p. 


DR.     R.     E.     MADDEN.  261 


GHAPTEE    XXXV. 

LIFE    AND    WOKK    FROM    1850    TO    '67. 

In  1861,  again  accompanied  by  the  writer  of  these  lines,  then  a 
young  traveller  in  ^^iirsiiit  of  health,  Dr.  Madden  undertook  his  last 
journey  to  the  East,  and  after  a  short  sojourn  in  Algiers  and  the 
Riviera,  once  more  visited  the  scenes  of  his  early  life  in  Egypt,  an 
account  of  which  had  been  published  a  generation  previously  in  his 
first  work — Travels  in  the  East." 

A  year  subsequently  was  brought  out  his  history,  in  two  vols.,  of 
'•  The  Turkish  Empire  in  its  Relations  with  Christianity  and  Civil- 
ization," which  was  fully  reviewed  in  the  leading  periodicals  of  the 
time,  such  as  "  The  Quarterly,"  "  British  Quarterly,"  "  National," 
and  "Westminster"  Reviews;  "Spectator,"  "  Observer,"  etc. 

"  The  maintenance  of  the  Mahommedan  power  in  Europe,"  says 
the  Observe?',  "  by  the  Crimean  war,  cost  Europe  probably  three 
hundred  millions  of  money  and  nearly  five  hundred  thousand  lives. 
What,  then,  is  this  Turkey  for  which  all  this  enormous  expenditure 
of  blood  and  treasure  was  incurred  ?  It  is  with  a  view  of  answer- 
ing this  question  that  Dr.  Madden  has  published  the  two  volumes 

before  us 'I  have  no  belief,'  he  says,  '  in  the  probability  of 

any  renovation  or  renewal  of  vital  vigour  in  that  Empire.  Turkey, 
so  long  as  she  is  allowed  to  subsist  by  the  mutual  jealousies  of  the 
five  great  Powers,  will  be  able  to  repress  revolts  more  or  less  tardily 
as  they  are  distant  from  the  capital ;  but  as  to  defend  her  frontiers 
against  invasion  or  to  push  an  army  into  an  enemy's  country,  the 
thing  is  impracticable.'  The  work  affords  abundant  materials  for 
careful  perusal,  and  may  be  studied  with  profit  and  advantage  by 
all  who  desire  to  make  themselves  thoroughly  informed  on  the  im- 
portant and  interestnig  subjects  with  which  it  deals." 

(From  The  Queen,  22nd  March). 
"It  is  no  small  pleasure  to  meet  with  a  writer  who  is  willing  to 
tell  the  truth  irrespective  of  consequences,  and  who  does  not  seek 
to  gloss  over  moral  wrong  under  the  specious  pretext  of  political 
necessity.  We  therefore  hail  the  appearance  of  this  book  which 
deals  amply  and  dispassionately  with  Turkey  under  every  aspect — 
poHtical,  moral,  and  social.  Dr.  Madden  writes  forcibly  and  brings  to 
his  labours  the  experience  acquired  by  a  long  residence  in  Turkey, 
and  the  enhghtenment  of  a  well  instructed  man,  anxious  for  the 
propagation  of  the  truth." 

(From  the  National  Review). 
"  The  Turkish   Empire  in  its  relations  with  Christianity  and 
Civihzation,"  is  a  valuable  book. 


262 


MEMOIRS 


(From  the  Liverpool  Albion,  *27th  January  1869). 

"  With  the  history  of  the  antagonism  between  Christians  and 
Mahommedans,  no  English  writer  is  better  acquainted  than  Dr. 
Madden,  whose  thorough  mastery  of  the  subject  has  been  gained 
by  nearly  40  years  study  of  it,  aided  by  residence  in  the  East  at 
three  widely  separated  periods.  .  .  .  His  opinions  are  diametrically 
opposed  to  the  ideas  upon  which  British  policy  towards  Turkey  has 
been  founded.  Dr.  Madden  not  only  has  no  faith  in  the  probability 
of  Ottoman  regeneration,  but  believes  that  the  continuance  of  Mos- 
lem rule  in  that  country  is  an  unmitigated  evil.  Opinions  will  pro- 
bably long  continue  to  differ  on  that  point,  but  no  better  materials 
for  their  formation  can  be  found  than  are  contained  in  the  present  work. " 

In  the  year  above  referred  to,  a  distinguished  writer,  the 
late  Mr.  Charles  Dickens,  allowed  the  pages  of  a  periodical  under 
his  control  to  become  the  medium  of  a  calumnious  attack  on  the 
Jesuits,  and  then  refused  to  give  equal  publicity  to  a  prompt 
refutation  of  that  calumny.  The  article  in  question  was  pub- 
lished in  All  the  Year  Round,  on  the  20th  of  July,  and  on  the 
97th  of  the  same  month  it  was  answered  by  Dr.  Madden  in  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  editor  of  that  paper,  but  which  being  denied 
insertion  there,  appeared  in  the  Dublin  Quarterly  Eevieiv  for  the 
following  month  (August  1861).  This  reply  was  briefly  as  follows: — 

"  An  article  recently  published  in  Mr.  Dickens'  periodical,  Ah 
the  Year  Round,  has  given  large  circulation  to  a  mendacious  work, 
imputing  to  the  members  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  and  the  rehgion 
they  profess,  complicity  in  murder,  robbery,  perjury,  prevarication, 
sacrilege,  cupidity,  hypocrisy,  and  impiety  in  all  its  forms.  This 
terrible  impeachment  is  made  on  the  evidence  of  a  code  of  instruc- 
tions purporting  to  have  been  framed  by  the  Jesuits  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Order  of  which  Loyola  was  the  founder,  and  which  ne- 
cessarily makes  him  an  accessory  to  these  crimes. 

"  The  work  referred  to  is  a  new  English  version  of  a  Latin  work 
first  printed  in  1619.  It  was  then  stated  to  have  been  discovered 
in  Germany,  and  purported  to  be  secret  instructions  of  the  Jesuits 
for  the  use  of  the  members  of  their  Order.  It  was  translated  into 
English  and  published  by  Compton,  '  the  acute  and  learned  Bishop 
of  London,'  in  1609,  and  having  been  again  '  done  into  English' 
recently  in  London,  is  now  being  extensively  circulated.  The  per- 
sons who  have  thus  circulated  this  work  could  not  possibly  be  ignor- 
ant of  its  being  spurious,  and  fabricated  for  malicious  purposes,  had 
they  made  any  critical  inquiry  into  its  origin,  or  had  even  given 
any  commonly  careful  attention  to  its  perusal.  Bayle,  who  cer- 
tainly cannot  be  accused  of  any  partiality  in  favour  of  this  Order, 
says  : — "  The  fate  of  the  Jesuits  and  that  of  Cataline  are  much 
the  same.     Several  accusations  were  given  in  against  him  without 


DE.   K,    R.   MADDEN.  263 


any  proof,  but  they  met  with  credit  on  this  general  argument : 
*  Since  he  has  done  such  a  thing,  he  is  very  capable  of  having 
done  this,  and  it  is  very  possible  he  has  done  the  rest.'  ....  I  can- 
not thiok  the  rules  of  morality  will  allow  of  the  making  so  ill  a  use 
of  pubhc  prejudice." — Bayle,  Diet.   Crit.  Art.,  Loyola,  vol.  iii,  p. 

892,  2nd  ed.  1736 

Some  MSS.  copies  of  this  work  were  discriminated 
in  1611,  and  from  internal  evidence  the  author  appeared  to  have 
been  a  Pole.  The  first  printed  copy  appeared  at  Cracow  in  1612. 
Three  years  later  it  was  condemned  as  an  infamous  and  calumnious 
forgery,  by  the  Bishop  of  Cracow,  Mgr.  Tylchi,  who  was  desirous 
of  instituting  legal  proceedings  against  the  suspected  author,  Jerome 
Tzaorowski,  a  former  member  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  who  in 
1611  had  been  turned  out  of  the  Society. 

"  In  a  very  rare  work  in  our  possession,  entitled  **  Fasti  Socie- 
tatis  Jesu  Res  et  Personas  Memorabiles  Ejusdem  Societis,  opera  et 
studio  Eev.  P.  Joannis  Drews,"  (Praga  1750,  p.  167),  among  the 
occurrences  of  the  year  1606,  we  find  a  record  of  the  condemnation 
by  the  Sacred  Congregation  of  the  Index,  of  the  book  entitled 
"  Monita  Privata  Societis  Jesu,"  dated  10th  May  1616,  as  'falsely 
attributed  to  the  Jesuits,  calumnious,  and  full  of  defamation.' 

"  About  the  same  time  this  infamous  book  was  proved  to  be  a 
forgery  by  several  CathoHc  writers,  Jesuits  and  others,  such  as  Adam 
Fanner  (Matthew  Bembo),  Gretser,  and  Aquaviva.  In  the  '  Dizio- 
nario  degli  anomimi  e  dei  Pseudonimi,'  tom.  3,  the  author  Barbier, 
no  great  admirer  of  the  Jesuits,  acknowledges  that  the  '  Monita 
Secreta '  is  an  apocryphal  book  ;  a  literary  imposture  devised  and 
executed  by  the  enemies  of  the  Jesuits,  to  calumniate  and  discredit 
them.'  '  Nevertheless,  though  nothing  was  wanting  to  the  proofs 
of  the  utter  falsehood  of  the  charge  against  the  Jesuits  as  being 
the  authors,  it  continued  to  be  re-published  and  read  by  Protestants 
as  a  genuine  Jesuit  performance.  It  is  most  clearly  proved  that 
the  alleged  original  discovery  of  this  MS.  in  the  Jesuit  College  of 
Paderborn  in  Westphalia,  by  the  Duke  Christian  of  Brunswick, 
when  he  sacked  that  College,  could  not  have  been  true,  inasmuch 
as  the  said  sacking  took  place  in  1692,  and  the  book  was  printed 
at  Cracow  ten  years  previously,  and  had  been  condemned  at  Rome 
in  1616,  six  years  before  the  '  original  discovery  '  of  the  work  by 
the  Duke  of  I3runswick." 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 

CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    THE    LATE    MK.    JOHN   BRIGHT,    ETC.. 

In  1866,  the  late  Mr.  John  Bright  visited  Dublin,  and  ''being,  says 
Dr.  Madden,"  a  former  fellow-labourer  in  the  Anti-Slavery 
cause,  and  having  enjoyed   the   honour   of  his   acquaintance  for 


264  MEMOIRS 


thirty  years'  I  called  to  pay  my  respects  on  the  morning  after 
his  arrival  (October  20th,  1886),  at  the  house  of  my  good  old  friend 
James  Haughton,  the  well-known  philantrophist,  with  whom  he 
was  staying  in  Eccles-St.  I  was  very  kindly  received  by  that 
distinguished  man,  who,  pre-eminent  as  he  is  for  his  genius,  is  still 
more  remarkable  for  his  singleness  of  purpose  and  strength  and 
simplicity  of  mind.  Mr.  Bright  did  not  lose  much  time  in  referring 
to  some  points  connected  with  the  state  of  affairs  in  this  country 
which  he  proposed  to  deal  with  in  his  intended  speech  at  the  Ro- 
tunda on  the  following  day,  and  referred  to  the  mauy  difficulties  of 
his  task,  and  more  especially  to  three  or  four  topics  concerning 
which  he  was  pleased  to  desire  my  opinion.  These  included  the 
Irish  Established  Church  as  well  as  the  land  problem  ;  and  the  ques- 
tion how  far  the  actual  condition  of  the  people  of  Ireland  was  influen- 
ced by  the  special  circumstances  of  their  race,  education,  and  long 
endurance  of  oppression  or  v;rong.  In  reply  to  Mr.  Bright's  questions 
with  regard  to  the  supposed  influence  of  the  Celtic  race,  on  Irish 
politics  and  polemics,  I  did  not  believe,  I  said,  in  the  possibility  of  the 
continued  existence  of  any  distinct  original  race  pure  and  un- 
mixed in  a  country  such  as  this,  repeatedly  overrun  and  peo- 
pled by  foreign  conquerors.  In  Ireland  the  transfusion  of  the 
Celtic  with  the  Anglo-Norman  and  Saxon  races  had  been  going  on 
nearly  seven  centuries.  I  therefore  had  no  faith  in  the  doctrine 
that  ascribed  all  the  virtues  under  heaven  to  a  particular  section  of 
our  people  in  right  of  that  supposed  distinction,  whether  the  claim  was 
set  up  by  O'Connell  for  the  Celtic,  or  by  Lyndhurst  for  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race.  At  the  same  time  I  acknowledged  that  there  was  a  pecu- 
liar quality  characteristic  of  the  Celtic  race,  especially  in  Ireland, 
namely,  a  recuperative  power,  a  living  principle  of  energy  that  rose 
up  unsubdued  after  every  conflict  with  rapacious  tyranny.  Under 
God,  to  that  signal  characteristic  of  the  Celtic  race  (largely  mixed 
though  this  race  had  been  in  the  course  of  694  years  of  English 
rule),  the  existence  of  the  Irish  people  to  the  present  day  is 
mainly  to  be  attributed. 

"  The  Irish  people  in  our  times  have  been  somewhat  hurt,  I  think, 
by  the  extravagant  enconiums  on  their  intellectual  and  moral  quali- 
ties, by  which  their  friends  have  sought  to  compensate  for  the  calum- 
nies of  their  detractors.  It  is  quite  impossible  that  any  people 
could  be  so  reduced  and  kept  in  such  an  abject  condition  as  the  Irish 
had  been,  without  becoming  deteriorated  by  the  savagery  of  such  a 
regime.  Moreover,  the  effects  of  slavery  long  survive  the  regime 
itself.  Nor  is  it  even  in  forty  years  after  emancipation  has  been 
enacted  that  the  vices  engendered  during  many  ages  can  be  eradi- 
cated. The  vices  of  slavery,  that  are  its  peculiar  ones,  its  only 
weapons  of  defence,  are  servile  sycophancy,  and  proneness  to  de- 
ceive.    Homer  has  truly  said — "  The  day  that  robs  a  man  of  his 


DR.    E.    K.    MADDEN. 


265 


freedom  deprives  him  of  half  his  worth.'  The  bad  quahties  that 
exist  in  the  Irish  people  are  not  as  Mr.  Fronde,  and  other  writers 
of  similar  views  in  the  Press  seem  to  suppose— specially  attributable 
to  their  race  or  creed.  ^  They  are  wholly  and  solely  ascribable  to  seven 

centuries  of  misrule."  ^  ..t     -d  •  i  *      -+1. 

At  this  point  I  was  obhged  to  take  my  leave  of  Mr.  Bright,  with 
a  determination  that  what  I  had  left  unsaid  with  regard  to  the  two 
other  questions  he  had  alluded  to,  I  would  withm  a  couple  ot 
hours  communicate  to  him  in  writing.  This  I  accordmgly  did  m 
the  following  letter  : — 

(To  John  Bright,  Esq.,  M.P.) 

Dublin,  Oct.  90th  1866. 
My  Dear  Sir,— Our  conversation  was  interrupted  this  morning 
when  I  was  making  some  reply  to  your  inquiries  respecting  the  stata 
of  affairs  here.     I  think  I  need  now  make  no  apology  to  you  lor 
stating  in  writing  that  which  then  remained  unsaid  by  me.     With 
reference  first  to  your  questions  concerning  the  Estabhshed  Church 
in   Ireland,  I  would  venture  to  express  my   opinion  that  had  it 
pleased  God  to  have  permitted   Irish  Protestant   Ascendancy,   as 
it  is  embodied  in  the  Estabhshed  Church,  the  gift  of  a  high  order 
of  inteUigence  and  a  far-seeing,  worldly  wisdom,  that  estabhshment 
of  State  privileged  rapacity  pretending  to  be  a  rehgious  institution 
would  have  been  the  most  powerful  hypocrisy  that  was  ever  planted 
in  the  midst  of  civilization.     But  the  Irish  Estabhshed  Church  is 
not   far-seeing,  wise,   and   prudent,  not   even  commonly   discreet 
enough  for  the  security  of  its  own  interests.     It  never  was  more 
bent  on  forcing  the  pecuhar  iniquities  of  its  injustice  on  the  pubhc 
attention  than  it  is  at  the  present  moment,  and,  m  point  ot  lact,  ot 
compehing  the  thinking  portion  of  the  Enghsh  people  to  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  existence  of  the   Established  Church  m 
Ireland  is  not  only  an  intolerable  grievance  to  the  Komaii  Cathohc 
people  of  Ireland,  but  also  a  formidable  danger  to  British  imperial 
power.     Observe  the  singular  openness  as  well  as  the  miquity  ot 
its  alliances  >.ith  Orangeism  and  proselytism.     Keep  m  mmd  the 
present  connexion  of  its  dignitaries  with  the  Orar^ge  Institution. 
Do  not  lose  sight  of  the  present  Protestant  Archbishop  of  Dubiin, 
up  to  a  very  recent  date  in  close  alhance  and  pious  amity  mth  the 
late  Lord  Plunket,  Bishop  of  Tuam,  endorsing  the  statements  ot 
conversions,  now  proved  to  be  enormously  erroneous,  of  that  man  ot 
a  great  name,  and  of  a  bad  fame  for  Christian  charity. 

The  third  and  last  observation  I  have  to  trouble  you  with  is  the 

^'^Irl'h^Wlordism,  with  the  power  for  evil  now  conferred 
on  it,  is  by  no  means  less  degrading,  less  oppressive  than 
Turkish  rule  was  at  the  period  when  I  had  personal  experience 
of    that   Power,   immediately    previous   to   the    liberation     trom 


266  MEMOIRS 


its  yoke  of  the  Greeks  in  the  Morea  and  in  the  islands  of  the 
Archipelago.  Nothing  short  of  the  most  comprehensive  and 
speedy  measure  of  Tenant  Eight  Law.  embracing  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  legislation  in  regard  to  the  tenure  of  land  can  meet  its  diffi- 
culties aud  its  dangers.  The  Government  should  be  urged  to  make 
a  further  recognition  of  the  importance  and  feasibility  of  creating, 
on  equitable  terms  of  compensation,  and  payments  by  state  aid,  on 
the  vast  estates  now  held  by  non-resident  landlords,  a  class  of  peas- 
ant proprietors  who  would  furnish  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  surest 
guarantee  for  the  future  peace  and  welfare  of  the  country.  If  such 
measures  be  not  passed  in  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom,  the 
law  that  united  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  to  that  of  England  will 
have  to  be  considered  with  a  more  profound,  calm,  and  earnest  at- 
tention than  ever  it  has  been  heretofore  considered  with.  And  the 
question  will  necessarily  force  itself  on  the  minds  of  all  just,  right- 
thinking  people,  of  the  absolute  need  of  a  Parliament  in  Ireland  to 
do  that  which  a  Parliament  in  England  will  not  do  for  the  vital  in- 
terests of  this  country.  It  will  not  do  for  the  Imperial  Legislature 
to  palter  any  more  with  these  two  vital  questions.  Either  the 
Irish  Church  Establishment  must  be  totally  abolished  by  it,  or  an 
Irish  restored  Parliament  will  have  to  accomplish  that  object ; 
either  an  English  Parliament  will  have  to  legislate  on  the  Irish 
land  question  in  a  way  that  will  put  an  immediate  and  effectual 
check  to  emigration  and  eviction,  or  an  Irish  Parhament  most  as- 
suredly will  eventually  have  to  save  the  people  of  Ireland  in  this  dire 
extremity  to  which  it  has  been  reduced  by  English  legislation. 

I  am,  my  dear  sir. 

Very  truly  yours, 
Richard  Robert  Madden. 

(Letter  from  Mr.  Bright). 

Rochdale,  1st  Nov.  1866. 

My  dear  Sir, — I  thank  you  for  your  letter  of  the  20th  ult.,  and 
for  the  book  you  kindly  sent  me. 

After  all  you  have  written  and  I  have  said,  I  fear  the. Irish  ques- 
tion will  remain  where  it  is  until  some  calamity  arouses  the  English 
people  and  the  terror  of  our  ruling  class.  It  is  admitted  by  the 
Press  on  both  sides  that  there  is  almost  universal  discontent  in 
Ireland — such  discontent  as  would  welcome  invasion  from  any  quar- 
ter. It  is  known  that  there  is  an  Irish  nation  in  America  burning 
to  be  avenged  for  its  sufferings  in  the  past,  and  that  this  element 


DR.     R.     R.    MADDEN.  967 


of  evil  may  bring  about  the  calamity  of  war  between  England  and 
the  United  States.  Should  this  occur,  from  any  cause,  there  would 
be  an  immediate  rising  in  Ireland,  and  the  consequences  no  man 
can  foresee. 

I  am  very  sad  when  I  think  of  Ireland  in  connexion  with  the 
ruling  class  in  the  United  Kingdom.  All  fact  and  argument  seem 
to  be  thrown  away  upon  it.  Its  Press  is  ignorant  or  vile,  or  both, 
and  it  supports  all  the  evil  of  the  past  and  that  now  exists,  and 
condemns  every  honest  proposition  that  might  give  a  chance  of  a 
better  future. 

If  some  opportunity  occurs,  I  shall  say  something  more  on  the 
Irish  Land  Question.  I  may  not  be  able  to  teach  or  to  warn  the 
governing  body  or  the  people  ;  but  I  shall  clear  myself  of  any  com- 
plicity in  what  is  done,  and  of  any  responsibility  as  to  what  may 
occur. 

I  received  much  kindness  whilst  in  Dublin,  for  which  I  am  very 
gi'ateful. 

Bejieve  me  always  sincerely  yours, 

John  Bright. 
R.  R.  Madden,  Esq.,  Loan  Fund  Board,  Dublin. 


In  the  inception  of  the  O'Connell  memorial  in  Dublin,  in  which, 
through  the  genius  of  Foley,  the  gratitude  of  an  emancipated 
people  to  their  Liberator  has  been  perpetuated,  an  early  part  was 
taken  by  the  subject  of  this  memoir.  The  history  of  the  origin  of 
that  monument  in  the  trilling  surplus  remaining  after  the  comple- 
tion of  a  statue  to  O'Connell  in  Ennis,  has  been  sketched  by  the 
Very  Rev.  Canon  O'Hanlon  in  his  interesting  "  Report  of  the 
O'Connell  Monument  Committee,"  Dublin,  1888. 

"  Much  about  the  same  time,"  says  Canon  O'Hanlon,  "  the  dis- 
tinguished and  patriotic  Irishman,  Dr.  R.  R.  Madden,  then  residing 
at  Dalkey,  held  communication  with  Dr.  Gray  on  this  subject,  and 
the  fortuitous  circumstance  of  procuring  more  than  Mr.  Considine 
required  (for  the  Ennis  Monument)  was  availed  of  to  commence 
another  good  work.  An  evening  was  named  by  Dr.  Madden  for  a 
dinner  party,  and  a  number  of  influential  gentlemen,  who  were 
known  to  be  the  former  friends  and  associates  of  Ireland's  illus- 


268  MEMOIRS 


trious  champion,  were  invited  to  meet  Dr.  Gray.  Several  guests 
specially  selected  for  the  object  held  in  view,  were  there  assembled. 
Distinguished  amongst  them  was  Patrick  Vincent  Fitzpatrick,  the 
former  organizer  and  treasurer  of  the  O'Connell  National  Tribute. 
His  experience  and  assistance  were  availed  of  and  very  readily 
tendered.  The  plan  of  operations  was  considered,  discussed,  and 
finally  resolved  on,  that  Sunday  evening  before  the  party  separated. 
At  that  time  the  project  was  a  secret  to  the  general  public,  and  at 
a  late  hour  Dr.  Gray  reached  the  Freeman's  Journal  office  to  pre- 
pare an  article  announcing  that  the  subscription  for  the  Ennis 
Monument  to  O'Connell  should  close  on  the  following  day.  On 
Monday,  the  22nd  September  1869,  a  first  and  stirring  appeal  was 
made  by  Dr.  Gray  through  the  medium  of  the  Freeman's  Journal 
for  funds  to  raise  a  National  Monument  in  honour  of  O'Connell, 
and  on  a  site  most  suitable  for  the  purpose."     Fu'port,  p.  xiii. 

A  few  days  previously,  however,  to  the  date  referred  to  Dr. 
Madden  had  published  the  following  appeal  for  the  completion  of 
the  O'Connell  Memorial  in  Glasnevin,  designed  by  Petrie  : — 


(To  the  Editor  of  the  Freeman). 

9,  Great  Denmark- St.,  Dublin. 

19th  September  1862. 

Dear  Sir, — I  beg  leave  to  trouble  you  with  my  subscription 
towards  the  completion  of  the  monument  to  O'Connell's  memory  in 
Ennis.  I  am  not  of  opinion  that  O'Connell's  services  to  his  country- 
men are  forgotten,  or  in  danger  of  being  forgotten  by  them.  Pro- 
bably they  will  be  better  appreciated  in  fifty  years  to  come  than 
they  apparently  are  at  the  present  day,  not  only  by  his  compatriots, 
but  also  by  every  enlightened  Englishman,  and  that  both  people 
will  unite  in  honouring  the  memory  of  a  man  who  had  rid  the  sta- 
tute book  of  their  land  from  the  infamy  and  disgrace  of  the  most 
barbarous  legislation  that  ever  stigmatized  the  character  and  insti- 
tutions of  any  christian  land — the  penal  code.  I  know  very  well, 
however,  how  ephemeral  in  all  lands  popularity  is,  how  evanescent 
public  gratitude  is  at  all  times,  and  how  often  intentions  to  demon- 
strate by  public  monuments  admiration  for  benefactors  of  their 
country,  have  either  never  been  carried  into  effect  or  only  partially 
accomplished,  and  ultimately  lost  sight  of  altogether.  The  appli- 
cation of  these  remarks  is  to  the  still  uncompleted  monument  to 
O'Connell  in  Glasnevin.  Soon  after  O'Connell's  remains  were  re- 
moved to  Ireland  a  committee  was  formed,  and  it  was  determined 


DK.    K.    K.    MADDEN.  200 


to  apply  to  Dr.  Petrie,  an  artist  as  well  as  an  antiquary  of  tlio 
highest  character,  for  plans  and  designs  for  a  suitable  monument. 
These  plans  were  prepared  in  an  elaborate  manner  and  accepted  by 
the  committee.  They  ordered  a  model  of  the  proposed  memorial, 
and  this  was  accordingly  made  by  a  very  competent  person,  Mr. 
O'Brien,  under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  Petrie.  A  distinguished 
Enghshman,  renowned  in  science,  Sir  R  Murchison,  having  seen 
this  design,  said — '  This  monument,  when  all  its  details  are  carried 
out,  w^ill  not  only  be  the  fittest  memorial  for  O'Connell,  but  one  ol 
the  finest  specimeus  of  Christian  monumental  art  in  existence.' 
Alas,  it  has  not  been  completed.  You,  my  dear  sir,  have  done  one 
good  work  in  your  recent  effort  for  the  O'Connell  statue  in  Clare, 
do  another  and  a  better  service  still.  Call  on  the  people  of  Ireland 
to  complete  the  monument  to  O'Connell's  memory  in  this  city. 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

R.  R.  Madden. 


CHAPTER    XXXVIL 


DR.    MADDEN  8    LAST    PUBLISHED    WOKKS    AND    COREESPONDENCE. 

In  1863  was  published  Dr.  Madden's  work  on  "  Galileo  and  the 
Inquisition,"  in  which  he  refuted,  from  authentic  original  sources, 
viz.,  letters  of  Galileo  and  his  co-temporaries,and  the  records  of  the 
proceedings  against  Galileo  never  previously  published  in  this 
country,  the  hitherto  generally  accepted  statements  that  Galileo 
had  been  "  ill-treated  by  the  Roman  Court,  or  put  to  the  torture 
by  the  Inquisition  for  promulgating  a  great  scientific  discovery." 
In  this  work  was,  moreover,  proved  that  upwards  of  a  century 
before  the  birth  of  Galileo  (in  1562),  the  motion  of  the  earth  and 
the  heHocentric  system  were  theories  that  found  acceptance  at  the 
hands  of  the  most  eminent  Roman  ecclesiastics,  Cardinals,  and 
Popes. 

In  1865  a  new  series  of  the  same  waiter's  Historical  Notice  of 
the  Penal  Laics  against  lioman  Catholics  was  published  by  Messrs. 
Richardson  of  London.  This  continuation  of  Dr.  Madden's  former 
work  thereon  included  a  full  account  of  tHe  operation  and  relaxation 
of  that  code  during  the  past  century,  and  of  the  partial  measures 
of  relief  from  those  infamous  enactments  in  1779,  '82,  '98,  and 
1829.  In  it,  moreover,  may  be  found  a  detailed  notice  of  the 
vestiges  of  the  penal  law  system  which  still  remain  unrepealed,  or 


J^70  MEMOIRS 


that  have  even  been  rendered  more  stringent  by  the  latest 
Emancipation  Act.  In  the  following  year,  186«,  the  last  of 
the  many  works  published  by  Dr.  Madden,  viz.,  The  History 
of  Irish  Periodical  Literature,  appeared,  and  the  termination 
of  his  literary  career  as  au  author  was  characterised  by  no 
less  erudition  than  is  evinced  in  his  earlier  writings,  and,  like 
others  of  them,  was  devoted  to  a  most  interesting  portion  of  Irish 
historical  literature.  This  book  was  intended  to  be  brought  out  in 
three  volumes  published  separately,  but  of  these  only  two  appeared, 
the  materials  completed  for  the  third  being  sold  at  the  dispersion  of 
the  writer's  library  after  his  death  twenty  years  subsequently.  The 
book  referred  to  was  thus  described  at  the  time  of  its  publication  : — 

"  This  History  of  Irish  Periodical  Literature,  the  result  of  ar- 
duous labour  and  research  for  the  past  live  years,  is  not  a  mere 
catalogue  of  names,  dates,  and  compendious  characteristics  of  news- 
papers and  magazines,  gleaned  from  published  lists,  but  an  original 
and  extensive  Treatise,  illustrative  of  the  origin,  scope,  j^rogress, 
and  design  of  newspapers,  magazines,  and  periodical  miscellanies 
of  all  kinds  worthy  of  notice,  that  have  been  published  in  Ireland 
from  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth,  to  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

"  The  importance  of  such  a  work,  executed  with  due  care,  truth- 
fulness, and  impartiahty,  must  be  obvious  to  aU  by  whom  reliable 
knowledge  is  desired  on  subjects  of  great  pith  and  moment,  that 
have  engaged  public  attention  in  Ireland  during  a  period  of  nearly 
two  centuries.  It  abounds  with  biographical  notices  of  Irish  period- 
ical originators,  contributors,  and  editors,  remarkable  for  their 
position,  influence,  ability,  or  eccentricity,  of  past  or  recent  times. 

"  No  work  of  this  kind  has  heretofore  been  pubhshed  in  Ireland. 
It  could  only  have  been  attempted  with  any  prospect  of  success, 
and  successfully  executed,  by  one  who  was  prepared  to  make  great 
sacrifices  of  time,  labour,  and  money,  for  the  acquisition  of  the 
materials  essentially  requisite  for  the  accomplishment  of  such  a 
task.  It  could  only  be  done  effectually,  and  completed  in  the 
period  above  referred  to,  by  one  who  had  not  only  a  very  extensive 
library  of  his  own  at  command,  but,  moreover,  an  extensive  know- 
ledge of  Irish  history,  previously  acquired  in  the  pursuit  of  know- 
ledge bearing  on  analogous  subjects  of  grave  interest,  at  some  of 
the  most  stirring  periods  of  Irish  history.  The  character  of  this 
work  may  be  set  forth  in  a  few  words  :  it  has  been  written,  not  for 
the  sake  of  serving  any  purpose,  political  or  polemical,  or  pecuniary, 
but  of  promoting  the  interests  of  truth,  and  its  objects  in  relation 
to  a  very  important  and  long-neglected  portion  of  Irish  literature." 

On  the  24th  of  May  1867,  an  influential  deputation  who  waited 
on  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  the  late  Duke  of  Abercorn,  had  been  in- 
formed that  the  sentence  pronounced  on  the  then  recently  convicted 


DK.    R.    r«    MADDEN.  3fl 


Fenian  prisoners  could  not  be  commutec].  and  a  day  later,  in  reply  to  a 
most  forcible  appeal  for  mercy,  from  tb  late  Mr.  James  Haugliton, 
His  Excellency  expressed  his  deep  regret  that  he  could  "  hold  out  no 
hope  that  the  sentence  passed  on  Burke  could  be  remitted."  Neverthe- 
less, the  memorials  for  clemency  proved  successful,  and  to  this  result 
the  part  taken  by  Mr.  Haughton,  and  also  by  Dr.  Madden  in  the  fol- 
lowing appeal  to  the  Prime  Minister  were  unquestionably  contributary. 

(To  the  Right  Hon.  the  Earl  of  Derby). 

Ballygihen-avenue,  Kingstown,  Co.  Dublin. 
25th  May  1867. 

My  Lord, — In  taking  the  great  liberty  of  addressing  your  Lord- 
ship in  reference  to  the  memorial  for  a  commutation  of  the  sentence 
pronounced  on  the  political  prisoners  recently  tried  in  this  city,  I  am 
influenced  mainly  by  the  following  consideration  : — The  infliction  of 
capital  punishment  has  never  fulfilled  the  expectation  of  those  who 
have  had  recourse  to  that  means  of  removing  discontent  and  repress- 
ing insurrection  in  Ireland  at  least.  For  one  msurgent  whom  the 
Government  makes,  as  it  thinks,  the  victim  of  the  outraged  laws  of 
his  country,  and  as  the  mass  of  people  think  the  martyr  of  its  cause, 
hundreds,  nay  thousands  of  sympathisers  will  be  at  once  raised  up, 
and  at  the  expiration  of  upwards  of  three  score  years — referring  for 
example  to  the  insurrectionary  movement  of  Ptobert  Emmet  in  1803 — 
millions  even  may  be  found  imbued  with  feelings  of  commiseration 
for  that  rash,  and  ill-fated  young  man  whom  they  look  on  as  a  martyr, 
and  of  repugnance  to  the  power  that  consigned  him  to  the  gallows, 
•-h  *  -K-  *  *  ^'' 

That  consideration  I  would  humbly  venture  to  submit  might 
well  at  this  present  moment  probably  conduce  towards  influencing 
your  Lordship  in  favour  of  the  extension  of  Her  Majesty's  gracious 
clemency  to  Burke  and  the  other  prisoners  now  under  sentence  of 
death  for  an  offence,  which,  however  grave  in  its  legal  aspects  and 
consequences,  was  essentiaUy  political  in  its  nature. 

-^:  =1=  *  *  *  * 

The  remission  of  that  awful  penalty  in  these  cases  would,  I  am  well 
con\'inced,  redound  more  to  the  enduring  honour  of  your  Lordship's 
name,  than  can  be  conceived  by  any  person  who  is  not  intimately 
acquainted,  not  only  with  the  present  state  of  things  in  Ireland, 
but  with  that  of  the  past,  and  its  doleful  history  of  periodical  abor- 
tive insurrections,  and  those  subsequent  too  frequent  expiations  of 
them  on  the  gallows,  that  have  certainly  had  no  advantageous  result 
or  any  power  of  repression.  I  believe,  moreover,  that  at  this 
moment  the  carrying  into  effect  of  the  merciful  and  wise 
course  above  referred  to,  would  tend  not  less  to  promote  the  true 


272  MEMOIRS 


and  permanent  interests  of  the  Imperial  Government  in  Ireland, 
but  even  those  higher  interests  of  justice,  and  humanity, 
which  are  the  essentials  of  all  true  civilization,  and  though  last,  not 
least,  the  high  estimation  in  which  the  best  of  English  sovereigns, 
our  precious  gracious  Queen  is  held. 

The  resume  of  the  preceding  observations  is  embodied  in 
the  following  declaration,  made  towards  the  end — as  in  the 
course  of  nature  I  must  expect — of  a  long  career,  and,  I  may 
add,  of  a  very  varied  one,  fraught  with  very  large  experience — "  I 
solemnly  declare  that  I  beheve  most  tirmly  it  is  not  necessary,  ex- 
pedient, politic,  or  advantageous  to  the  interest  of  society,  humanity, 
justice,  and  civilization  to  take  away  human  life  ;  and  that  all  such 
interests  would  be  best  served  by  withholding  the  sanction  of  the 
law  from  the  power  exercised  by  men  in  authority  over  the  lives  of 
their  fellow -creatures  on  any  plea  or  pretext  whatsoever,  or  pretence 
of  using  that  power  for  the  vindication  of  justice  or  in  atonement  of 
any  wrong  or  outrage." 

My  Lord,  I  am  an  old  man,  verging  on  my  seventieth  year.  I 
have  had  abundance  of  experience  derived  from  observation  of  the 
vanity  and  unprofitableness  of  engagements  in  politics  or  polemics, 
in  the  strife  of  factions,  and  the  far  worse  calamities  of  civil  wars 
and  commotions,  and  I  confess,  knowing  as  I  do,  the  sanguinary 
feelings  that  have  prevailed  in  this  country,  even  in  classes  where 
they  might  least  be  expected  to  be  found,  where  education  and 
civihzing  influences  ought  to  have  pi;oduced  very  different  results, 
that  I  now  feel  the  most  extreme  terror  at  the  prospect  of  recourse  to 
measures  which,  if  they  •  do  not  prove  the  inauguration  of  a  new 
regime  of  blood  Uke  that  of  1798  in  Ireland,  will  be  so  construed  by 
millions  of  people  in  this  country  and  in  America.  And,  moreover, 
that  construction  may  probably  do  more  permanent  mischief  to  the 
character  of  British  rule,  and  to  the  condition  of  all  classes  in  this 
country  than  they  ever  before  received.  You  have  the  power,  my  lord, 
of  averting  those  great  evils,  and  I  do  not  doubt  the  inclination. 
That  60  it  may  be  now  proved  is  the  most  earnest  prayer  oi 

Your  Lordship's  very  obedient  humble  servant, 
RiCHABD  Robert  Madden. 


On  several  occasions  my  father  was  urged  to  publish  his  recollec- 
tions of  the  remarkable  events  and  persons  that  he  had  been  ac* 
quaiuted  with  during  the  course  of  his  varied  career  in  many  lands. 


DR.    R.     R.     MADDEN.  973 


The  materials  for  this  record  were  more  than  once  commenced  and 
abandoned,  and  their  character  may  be  gathered  from  the  fragments 
which  an  attempt  has  l)een  made  to  wekl  together  in  tlie  pre- 
ceding pages.  One  of  those  by  whom  this  work  was  suggested  was 
his  old  and  valued  friend.  Mr.  James  Murphy,  of  Cork,  a  man  of 
similar  tastes,  well  known  as  a  scholar  and  collector  of  old  books. 
Thus,  in  one  of  his  letters  on  tliis  subject  the  latter  writes  : 

City  Club,  Cork, 
15th  October  1870. 

My  dear  Doctor, — More  than  once  have  I  hinted  to  you  that  you 
should  give  us  •'  Reminiscences  of  R.  l\.  Madden."  What  a  treat 
the  book  would  be  to  ymir  hiends :  liow  interesting  to  literary  men, 
and  others  like  myself,  would  be  your  recollections  of  travel,  inter- 
spersed witli  anecdotes,  your  intercourse  with  persons  of  note  in 
foreign  lands  as  well  as  at  liome,  during  the  last  forty  years  or  up- 
wards. Your  friend  Newby  would  guarantee  a  large  sale  of  the 
work  in  England,  Ireland.  America,  and  the  Antipodes,  if  brought 
out  like  Hennj  Crabhe  Uobimon's  Diarj/,  dc,  (3  vols.  8vo.). 
which  I  have  just  been  reading.  Have  you  read  this  book '?  If  not, 
you  have  a  treat  in  store.  He  was  one  of  Lady  Blessington's 
favourites,  and  gives  interesting  particulars  of  the  soirees  and  per- 
sons he  met  at  Gore  House.  Providence  was  very  kind  to  him  and 
kept  his  briiin  and  nerves  intact  until  the  ripe  old  bachelor  closed 
his  career  in  1807,  aged  01.  It  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  books 
I  have  come  across  for  a  long  time,  and  I  thought  of  yourself  many 
times  while  reading  it.  Sliould  you  act  as  I  fondly  wish,  you  bave 
the  advantages  of  the  clear  intellect  and  talents  of  your  own  dear 
cara  sposa  to  assist  you  in  the  memorial,  and  freshen  up  bygone 
events, — an  '•Amanuensis"  of  incalculable  value.  What  pleasure 
it  would  give  mo  to  bear  you  liad  this  resolution  "  in  your  mind's 
eye,  Horatio." 

Last  week  I  sent  you  a  newspaper  giving  an  account  of  some 
Cork  newspapers  of  old  dates  which  may  interest  you.  How  is 
our  friend  McCarthy  getting  on  in  London '.'  I  have  a  great  regard 
for  him  and  his  fam'ily,  and  would  be  glad  to  hear  he  got  some  berth 
from  Government  and  became  a  fixture. 

Does  not  vour  heart  shudder  at  the  war  in  France  ?  There  is  a 
cold  chill  upon  me  every  day  I  look  at  tbo  telegrams,  when  I  tbink 
how  the  Prussians  will  act."  When  they  get  into  Paris,  very  little 
respect  they  will  pay  to  the  treasures  of  the  Louvre,  and  the  books 
of  the  •'  Bibliothequelmperiale,"  now  packed  in  cellars  under  sand- 
bags, impervious  to  bombshells,  but  not  so  to  plundering  soldiers. 
Pio'rne,  too ;  what  a  contrast  from  my  late  visit  to  the  Eternal  City  I 

i9 


274  MEMOIRS 


II ow  sad  to  think  of  the  present  position  of  the  Holy  Father — 
under  the  heel  of  his  enemies.  What  a  spectacle  to  all  enemies  of 
Catholicism  over  the  world  ! 

1  hope  Tom  and  his  amiable  \Yife  and  children  are  quite  well ; 
they  will  never  be  happier  than  I  wish  them.  Let  me  hear  from 
you  very  soon ;  and  with  my  warmest  regards  to  Mrs.  Madden, 

Believe  me,  my  dear  Doctor, 
Very  aHectionately  yours, 

James  Murphy. 


3,  Vernon-terrace,  Booterstown, 

20th  October  1870. 

My  dear  Murphy, — I  take  it  as  a  very  kind  act  your  renewed 
suggestion  in  re  the  putting  together  of  tlie  reminiscences  of  an  old 
wanderer  in  many  lands,  and  '*  picker  up  of  unconsidered  trifles  " 
in  many  libraries.  The  lirst  suggestion  made  no  deep  impression, 
but  not  so  the  second.  There  was  a  heartiness  in  the  persuasion 
of  it  that  I  found  irresistible.  So  Deo  volente,  you  may  yet  have 
my  reminiscences  of  all  the  strange  passages  in  my  life  in  strange 
lands  in  the  course  of  the  past  half  century,  for  my  amblings  and 
ramblings  in  foreign  countries  commenced  in  the  year  1820.  My 
communings  with  people  savage  and  civilized,  my  knocldngs  against 
queer  people,  celebrities  of  all  kinds,  good,  bad,  and  indiftercnt ; 
my  indulgencies  in  boolvish  habits  and  pursuits  in  libraries,  foreign 
and  domestic,  will  be  set  down  in  order  for  publication  :  and  if  God 
be  pleased  to  add  two  years  more  to  my  present  stock  of  seventy-two 
summers,  not  to  say  anything  of  the  v.inters,  the  reminiscences  of  the 
poor  old  man,  who  is  proud  to  call  himself  your  friend,  may  yet  see 
the  light  of  day  in  print.-  If  so,  and  if,  moreover,  this  work  should  be 
damned,  strike  your  breast  contritely  three  times  and  say  in  your 
most  solemn  Corkonian  tones — "  Mea  culpa,  mea  culpa,  mea  maxi- 
ma culpa  ! " 

I  have  been  very  busy  for  several  days  past,  or  your  kind  letter 
would  not  have  remained  some  days  unacknowledged.  I  am  a 
worker  behind  the  scenes  occasionall}^  in  grand  emergencies  when 
things  of  a  public  kind  are  not  doing  that  which  ought  to  be  done. 
You  may  have  seen  an  admirable  letter  of  Lord  Granard  suggesting 
meetings,  &c.,  with  reference  to  Roman  afiairs  and  the  outrages  on 
the  Pontiff.  It  fell  on  the  leading  Liberal  Catholics  truly  as  a  dead 
letter.  I  think  I  will  send  you  copies  of  some  of  my  correspondence  in 
this  matter  to  read — but  mind  to  return  them.  I  also  enclose  some 
reflexions  of  mine  on  "  the  almighty  smash  "  of  Louis  Napoleon, 
published  in  the  Eveni7ifi  Post. 


DR.    R.    R.    MADDEN.  273 


Mrs.  Madden  joins  in  kind  regards,  and  so  would  jour  old  friend 
Tom  if  be  knew  I  were  writing. 

Yours,  my  dear  Murphy, 

Ever  faithfully, 
R.  R.  Madden.* 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

RETrEE>rF,NT    FI'.OM    LOAN    FUND    BOARD,    1880. 

In  the  spring  of  1880  Dr.  Madden  feit  warned  by  the  inereasiiig 
burden  of  the  eighty-one  years  during  which  he  had  earned  his 
bread, — "  sudor  mentis," — that  the  hour  hud  at  length  arrive;!  for 
a  brief  respite  from  the  labours  of  a  busy  life,  in  preparation  for 
the  fast  approaching  call  from  time  to  eternity.  Accordingly,  in 
March  1880,  he  placed  Ids  resignation  as  Secretary  of  the  Loan 
Fund  Board  in  the  ii.mds  of  the  authorities.  This  was  thus  no- 
ticed in  the  VreenuDCs  Journal  of  Satuiday,  March  20th,  1880  :— 
"  After  a  long  and  faithful  service  of  nearly  forty  years,  Dr.  R. 
R.  Madden  has  resigned  the  office  of  Secretary  to  the  Loan  Fund 
Board  in  Dublin  Castle.  He  resigns  the  office  simply  because  the 
weight  of  years  and  work  is  pressing  too  heavily  upon  him.  and 
that  he  does  not  care  to  accept  remuneration  for  enfragemeiits 
which  he  deems  that  he  can  7io  longer  fulhl,  as  he  has  so  long  and  so 
well  done  up  to  the  present  day.  There  is  no  need  of  our  saying  a 
single  word  in  recognition  of  Dr.  Madden's  public  and  personal  worth. 
Of  few  men  could  it  be  said  with  more  perfect  truth,  that  in  private 
life  he  has  received  for  himself,  by  his  kindly  and  genial  ways,  love 
and  honour,  and  troops  of  friends.  In  public  life,  he  has 
earned  imperishable  renown  by  his  valuable  researches  into  a 
period  of  Irish  history  around  which  so  many  associations  and  tra- 

•  The  work  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  letter  was  never  completed,  but  amongst  the  volu- 
minous papers  found  after  Dr.  Madden's  death,  were  some  showing  that  a  similar  work  had 
been  previously  contemplated  by  him.  Only  the  preface  and  some  fragments  of  this 
volume  now  remain,  and  of  these  the  former  may  be  found  in  the  Appendix.  The  title  of 
the  proposed  volume  was— "  Til  OUGHTS  AND  INCIDENTS— Traces  of  the  Footprints  of 
Travel  in  Many  Lands,  in  Ancient  Lore  und  Regions  of  Research,  Abounding  in  Imperfect 
or  lU-Uemembered  Records  of  Remarkable  Persons  and  Events  ;  Miscellaneous  Notes  and 
Sketches,  ffistoric.il,  Bioc^'raphical,  and  Literarj-.  By  Richard  Robert  Madden,  M.R.I.A., 
Mem.  Grem.  Liter.  Lis!). ;  Mem.  Soc.  Scien.  Med.,  Lisb.,  fitc."    Vol.  I. 

"  [  have  passed  manye  lamles  and  manye  yies  and  contrees,  and  cherched  manye  fu'le 
straunge  places,  and  have  ben  in  manye  a  iulle  gode  honourable  companye.  Now  I  am  coraen 
home  to  restc.  And  thus  recordynge  the  tyme  passed.  I  have  fulfilled  these  thyngs  and  put 
them  wrvten  in  this  boko,  as  it  would  come  into  my  mynde,"— -S'lV  John  MaundevUle. 

19  * 


70  MEMOIRS 


ilitioiis  are  encircled.  In  all  that  he  has  written  he  has  proved 
Irisli  to  the  core,  and  has  shown  his  sympathy  with  every  legiti- 
mate national  aspiration.  Now  that  he  is  withdrawing  into  com- 
parative retirement,  we  are  sure  that  we  hut  speak  a  universal  feel- 
ing in  hoping  that  he  may  have  yet  hefore  him  many  years  of  health 
and  happiness,  and  that  it  may  he  long  before  there  shall  he  oc- 
casion to  write  of  him  with  more  detail  than  in  the  few  brief  sen- 
tences we  have  just  now  printed." 

After  his  retirement,  Dr.  Madden  occupie*!  his  time  chiefly  in 
literary  pursuits,  works  of  piety  and  benevolence,  and,  as  he  ex- 
picsse'd  it. — '•  Coyiniiunin;/  with  the  sharlon's  of  the  Dead.'' 

"  My  dfiys  amoDg  the  dead  are  pass'd, 

Armmd  me  I  i)ehold 
Wliereer  these  old  grey  eyes  are  cast, 

The  frieuds  I  lov'd  of  old/' — Colcridtjc. 


An  old  man's  friendless  days  are  dreary 
His  sleepless  nights,  'tis  said, 

Some  solace  find,  liowever  weary, 
Communing  with  the  dead. 

Portraits  of  dear  departed  frieuds 

Are  had  to  meet  his  gaze  : 
Kemembrance  of  them  thus  extends 

The  light  of  other  days. 

Dear,  never-failing  friends  are  they 
Whose  traits  these  prints  recall. 

With  wliom  I  mingle,  night  and  day, 
In  tlumght  with  one  and  all. 

Conversing  with  the  shadows  here 

Of  the  lov'd  dead,  I  find 
Has  something  in  it — serves  to  cheer 

And  soothe  the  saddened  mind. 

Around  me  features  T  behold 

I  look'd  on  in  my  youth. 
In  manhood  and  old  age— now  coJd 

In  death,  still  lov'd,  in  sooth. 

A  little  more,  and  I  shall  be 
Of  time  that's  past  and  gone — 

Recall'd,  perhaps,  by  some,  like  mo— 
Live  in  the  Past  alone. 

Tis  better  thus  to  live,  indeed 

In  any  land  ill-fated, 
Than  in  the  present,  and  take  heed 

Of  wrongs  unmitigated. 


Dn.    K.    R.    MADDtiN.  •  277 


Y(4  in  tlie  Past,  soliv.:  should  we, 
Ourmaiu  desire  would  prove 

Our  future  lite  with  God  might  be 
And  those  dear  frieuds  we  love  ! 

3  rcrnoii-icnacc,  I>ooter.-<toini,  June  1-,  1873. 


R.  R.  M. 


At  the  same  time,  nothing  gave  the  uhl  man  more  pleabure  than 
to  see,  as  long  as  possible,  the  few  surviving  friends  of  earlier  days 
around  his  table,  except  it  were  the  society  of  his  family  and  grand- 
children—and ])erhaps  more  esitecially  of  the  youngest  of  these, 
a  singularly  bright,  winning,  and  gifted  little  girl  named  I>eda,-i= 
whose  early  call  from  earth  to  heaven,  in  her  seventh  year,  on  the 
11th  June  1S8-2.  left  a  great  blank  in  that  small  world  of  whieJi  she 
was  the  brightest  sunbeam.  Indeed,  throughout  life.  Dr.  iMadtkn 
always  eiitertniufd  a  great  sentinu^nt  of  affection — nay,  even  rever- 
ence— for  children,  by  whom  he,  in  turn,  was  as  generally  beloved, 
for,  as  lie  wrote  in  some  of  his  latest  lines — 

••  There  is  sometliiiig  iu  the  artless  smiles 
Of  youth,  their  wiuuiug  ways  and  wiles, 
Their  joyous  iunoeeuce  and  freaks, 
That  even  of  the  aged  seeks 
The  notice  ;  and  it  almost  seems 
They  know  their  gracefulness  redeems 
Their  boist'rous  mirth,  their  pranks  unruly 
And  frolicsome — perhaps  unduly. 

"  These  creatures  have  so  lately  come 
Out  of  their  Maker's  hands,  they've  some 
Faint  traces  of  their  origin 
Yet  in  them — of  its  source  divine. 
No  wonder  aged  folks  should  see 
In  them  so  much  purity — 
So  much  of  poor  humanity 
Unsullied  in  the  spotless  child, 
By  sin  or  sorrow  undefiled." 

In  tliis  period  of  retinnueiit,  his  leisure  was  ohieily  employed  with 
the  well  read  •'  old  books  "  with  which,  as  before  said,  the  walls  of 
almost  every  room  in  his  liouse  were  lined. f  To  few  were  Cicero's 
words  more  applicable.  "  Nothing  seemed  moi'e  pleashig  to  him  than 
serious  study,  learning,  and  the  writings  of  the  learned,  by  which 
he  put  the  remembrance  of  past  grief  out  of  his  mind." — Nihil  illi 
solitudine,  et  in  studiis  scdicitudinte,  visum  est  aniicius,  in  qua 
oniuis  ei  erat  sermo  cum  literis,  et  literatorum  scriptis  et  per  quam 
pellebat  ex  animo  dolorum  praeteritorum  recordationeni. 

*  Vide  Appentlix. 

i  Dr.  Maddcu's  cxteiiKivt'  library  had  twice  |>r.viuiisly  burn  diriiuis.  d  on  ucciisioii  of  his 
dciiavture  from  home.  Nevertheless,  its  re-accumtiJatioii  always  fulknvtd  a.s  soon  uk  he  had 
ni,'ain  settled  hiiiiHelf  iu  any  place,  aud  after  his  death  itB  liual  sale  by  auctiuu  occupictl 
no  less  than  six  days. 


278  MEMoiiis 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

DK.    MADDEn's    death    IN    1886. 

In  this  chapter  we  approach  the  closing  scene  of  that  long  life,  the 
vicissitudes  of  which  in  many  lands  have  been  imperfectly  traced 
in  the  foregoing  pages — Ad  Sepiilchrum  Veniviiis.  During  his  de- 
clining years  he  retained  to  the  end  not  only  his  love  of  learning, 
but  also  his  kindly  nature  and  sympathy  with  literary  and  philan- 
trophic  work  and  workers.  At  the  same  time,  he  employed  him- 
self with  those  more  serious  considerations  that  best  befit  the  close 
of  existence,  and  found  in  the  religion  he  practised  an  unfailing 
source  of  hope  beyond  the  grave,  and  of  solace  for  all  the  trials  of 
age. 

Thus  prepared  for  the  supreme  change,  and  studiously  tended  to 
the  final  moment  of  existence  by  the  untiring  w^atchfulness  of  his 
devoted  wife  (who,  having  shared  and  lightened  all  his  cares,  liter- 
ary labours,  and  toils  in  the  cause  of  humanity  in  every  quarter  of 
the  world,  was  herself  soon  destined  to  follow  to  the  same  "  long, 
last  home"),*  Dr.  Madden  peacefully  departed  this  life  at  his  residence, 
Vernon-terrace,  Booterstown,  on  Friday,  otli  of  February  1880. 
To  that  inevitable  hour  he  long  looked  forward  wdth  christian  hope 
and  resignation,  and  in  it  he  was  fortified  by  the  ministrations  of  his 
Faith.  The  writer  of  one  of  the  kindly  obituary  articles  published  in 
the  Press  at  the  time  of  his  death  well  summed  up  his  character 
as  that  of — "  An  upright,  honourable,  and  high-souled  man, 
w-hose  genial  and  dignitied  presence  will  long  be  missed.  ...  If  not 
loaded  hero  with  those  honours  which  in  any  other  land  might 
well  have  rewarded  a  career  so  distinguished  and  so  useful  to  his 
countr}^  and  his  kind,  at  least  his  memory  should  survive  as  lung 
as  talents  of  the  highest  order  exercised  in  the  cause  of  truth 
and  humanity,  unswerving  rectitude,  benevolence,  and  love  of 
country,  deserve  our  remembrance." 

His  interment,  which  took  place  on  Tuesday,  February  9th,  was 
thus  described  in  another  journal  of  the  following  day  : — 

"  Yesterday  morning,  the  remains  of  Dr.  PJchard  l»obert 
Madden  were  conveyed  from  Booterstown  for  interment  in  the 
family  burial  place  at  Donnybroolv.  The  greatest  marks  of  respect 
were  shown  for  the  deceased  gentleman,  and  deep  sympathy  evinced 
for  his  widow  and  family.     At  Booterstown  all  the  dwellings  were 

Mrs.  Harriet  T.  Macldeji  ine  Elnislie),  bom  in  London  1>01,  died  at  Booterstown,  Co. 
Dublin,  February  7tb,  1888: — her  mental  faculties  unclouded  by  a^e  or  infirmity  ;  her  last 
word  a  prayer  ;  and  her  last  action  an  effort  to  make  the  sign  of  redemption  on  her  brow.  She 
was  interred  beside  her  husband's  remains,  in  the  old  churchyard  of  Donnybrook.    E.l.P. 


DR.    E.    K.    MADDEN.  279 


closed,  and  as  the  funeral  cortege,  which  extended  for  over  a  mile 
along  the  road,  arrived  at  Doiuiybrook,  the  houses  had  their  shutters 
up.  The  coffin  containing  the  remains  was  placed  on  a  catafalque 
in  the  Booterstown  Church,  where  Mass  was  celebrated  by  the  Rev. 
Pierce  Gaussen,  C.C,  tiie  Very  Rev.  Monsignor  Farrell,  and  seve- 
ral other  Clergymen  assisting  at  the  solemn  service,  A  considerable 
gathering  of  leading,'  citizens  and  representatives  of  the  learned 
professions  were  present  to  pay  a  tribute  of  respect  to  one 
who  filled  a  foremost  place  among  men  of  letters  of  his  time, 
the  chief  mourners  hvlw^  his  son,  Dr.  T.  More  Madden,  Presi- 
dent Obstetric  Section  Aciidemy  of  Medicine  in  Ireland ;  his 
nephew,  the  Right  Hon.  AVilJiam  H.  F.  Cogan,  P.O.,  D.L.  ; 
and  his  cousin,  John  C.  Murphy,  Esq.,  J. P.  On  arrival  at 
Donnybrook,  the  last  prayers  having  been  read,  the  remains  of  this 
gifted  and  estimable  man  were  laid  to  their  rest  beside  those  of  liis 
father,  mother,  and  kindred,  under  the  shadow  of  the  now  ruined 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  in  which  as  a  boy  he  had  often  knelt,  and 
within  view  of"  the  ancient  residence  of  "  The  Maddens  of  Donny- 
brook," where  much  of  his  boyhood  was  passed.  The  Christian 
benevolence  of  the  deceased  was  unsparingly  exercised  with  equal 
zeal  on  behalf  of  the  poor  and  oppressed,  whether  they  were  of  his 
own  country  or  in  those  distant  lands  with  which  his  eventful  career 
had  brouglit  liim  in  contact  ;  and  during  his  Colonial  Secretaryship 
in  Western  Austi'alia  this  was  especially  the  case.  He  was  one 
■ — "(}iii  multorum  providus  urbes  et  mores  homhunn  inspexit  "  ; 
and  in  all  these  wanderings  it  had  ever  been  his  earnest  hope  that 
he  might  ultimately  share  the  resting  place  of  his  kindred  in  the  land 
for  which  love  endured  to  his  heart's  last  beat.  It  is  not  a  httle 
remarkable  that  the  interval  between  the  death  of  the  author  of  the 
History  of  the  Lives  of  the  United  Irishmen,  who  died  in  his 
88th  year,  and  tlie  birth  of  his  father,  beside  whom  he  was  laid, 
covers  a  period  of  no  less  than  180  years.  The  churchyard  itself, 
now  closc(]  jis  a  burial  place,  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  in  the 
country.  \\'ithin  its  borders  lie  several  eminent  worthies,  chron- 
icled in  Mr.  J^lacker's  Memoriol.s  of  Booterstown,  and  amongst 
these  was  no  truer  or  more  upriglit  man  than  the  venerable  Dr. 
Madden.  It  may  be  added  that  he  rests  beneath  the  shade  of  four 
cypress  trees,  which  many  years  ago  he  had  brought  from  Napoleon's 
tomb  in  far  off  St.  Helena,  to  mark  the  site  of  the  Madden  family 
vault,  where  he  desired  should  be  inscribed  as  his  epitaph  the  words  : 
"  Here  also  he  the  remains  of  a  man  who  loved  his  country." — Be- 
quiescat  in  pace.'' 

To  the  foregoini:  generous  tribute,  which  was  but  one  of  the  many 
similar    notices    that     appeared    in     the    leading  Englisli,    Irish, 


^80  MtMOi&s 


and  American  journals  of  the  day,  there  remains  only  to  observe 
that  to  Eichard  Robert  Madden  might  1)0  well  applied  some  lines 
written  by  himself  nineteen  years  previously.  Jn  Npwm-iam  one 
of  his  oldest  friends— namely,  the  late  Richard  U'Gorman..  of 
whom  he  spoke  as — 

'*  The  graud  old  mau,  c.f  an  heroic  mind, 
Of  Eomau  traits  of  (.liaracter  and  mieii, 
Of  maDiiers  simple,  geuile,  smd  retiued. 
Of-  uoblest  nature,  ardent  and  serene. 


\Ve  shall  uot  look  upou  Lis  like  again, 

lu  youth  and  age  still  faithful  he  remained 

To  creed  and  country,  to  his  fellow-men, 
To  ev'ry  cause  deserved  to  be  sustained. 

Peaceful  and  calm  the  death- bed  of  the  just 
In  his  was  seen,  its  solemn  grandeur  sliov^n, 

In  look  and  gesture  of  imphcit  trust — 

Breathings  of  prayer,  revealed  to  God  alone  ! 

True  and  noble  friend,  thy  mis-ion  is  well  done 
In  life  thou'st  plann'd  to  serve  mankind. 

To  exalt  thy  God,  thy  country,  and  thine  own 
And  eacli  to  love,  with  all  thy  heart  and  mind 


%^i^ 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 

GENEALOGICAL,    HISTORICAL,    AND   FAMILY   RECORDS   OF    THE 

O'MADDEN'S    OF    HY-MANY. 


The  following  account  of  the  ancient  Sept  of  Siol  Anmacliadhn,  and  their 
descendants,  is  condensed  from  family  records,  and  various  works  bearing 
thereon,  amongst  which  sptcial  mention  must  be  made  of  the  late  Professor 
O'Donovau's  Tribes  and  (Customs  of  Hrj-Many.  These  notices,  the  greater 
portion  of  which  were  collected  and  as  far  as  possible  compared  with  the 
original  documents  by  the  late  Dr.  K.  H.  Madden,  are  here  published  in  the 
belief  that  this  sketch  of  the  lineage  of  that  family,  and  the  part  taken  by 
them  in  some  remarkable  passages  of  Irish  History,  may  not  be  devoid  of 
interest. 

In  our  earliest  Annals,  a  prominent  place  is  occupied  by  the  Septs 
and  Eulers  of  the  territory  of  Hy-INIany,  and  amongst  the  latter  there  were 
none  whose  ancestry  is  traceable  to  a  remoter  period,  or  whose  names  are 
more  frequently  mentioned  than  the  O'^NJaddens  Chieftains  of  Siol  Anmach- 
adha.  By  some  writers  the  pedigree  of  this  family  has  been  carried  back  to 
a  date  long  antecedent  to  any  of  the  Celtic  records  cited  in  the  following 
pages,  the  originals  of  which  are  still  preserved  in  the  libraries  of  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  and  of  the  Eoyal  Iri^h  Academy,  or  else  in  those  of  the 
British  Museum,  and  Bodlean  Library,  Oxford.  Thus  for  instance,  De  Burgo 
in  his  Ilihcrnia  Doiiiiiiiccuia,  traces  ibe  history  of  the  O'lNhiddens  up  to  the 
dim  and  distant  period  of  the  Milesian  invasion  of  Ireland,  an  evenr,  which 
Celtic  chroniclers  assign  to  the  year  1G09  B.C.  ;  when  iisthey  aver,  Heinionc 
and  his  brother  Heber,  sons  of  Milesius  of  Spain,  commenced  their  conjoint 
reign  as  the  first  Milesian  Monarchs  of  Ireland.  Of  this  curious  legendary 
illustration  of  genealogical  enthusiasm,  if  not  of  unquestionable  historical 
accuracy,  the  introductory  works  may  here  suffice  '•  Antiquissima  hsc  Pro- 
genies 6'^Iaddcnorum  Plibernice  O'Madagain  ....  recta  descendit  ab  Here- 
mone,  tertio  natu  e  iMilesii  Regis  Iberia;,  aliaa  Hispanic  Filiis  qui,  ut  toties 
ajebam,  permultis  ante  Virgiuis  Partum  centenis  annis  in  Insular  hanc  ad 
propagandum  in  ea  Gentem  advenerunt  A  prrelibato  quippe  Heremone  Ori- 
ginem  ducens  Conn  Ceadchathach  geiiuit  Jomchaith  cujusFratres  Progeni- 
tores  fuere  illustrissimarum  Familiarum  de  Maguire  .  .  .  .  et  de  JM-Mahon 

in  Ultonia a  memorata  autem  Jomchaidh  post  decem  generatioues 

ortus  est  Eogan  a  quo  O'Kolly,  et  Buadhach  (recta  Eoghan  Buac)  a  quo 
O'Madden  prognati  sun:."  In  reference  to  the  chieftain  thus  alluded  to 
by  De  Burgo,  O'Donovan  cites  a  Celtic  poem  written  circa  1:347,  and  still 
preserved  in  the  hbrary  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  H.  217,  p.  1!J0,— "The 
progeny  of  Eoghan  Buac,  the  hero,  are  the  great  race  of  O'Jiladdeu." — 
Tribes  of  Hy-Many. 


284  APPENDIX. 


"Xon  ab  re  eiit  obiter  iu  lioc  loco  adveiteie,"' adds  <le  Burgo,  '-Barouiam 
Longoiordieusem  adeo(iue  et  comitatum  Galvieusiem  compreheudisse  tem- 
poribus  O'Aladiteuonim  Dyuastuium  partem  luoderm  agii  regis  iu  Lageuia, 
veruacule  dictam  Lusmagli,  iiand  obstante  Sliacauo  iiitertlueiite,atque  sejiiu- 
geute  Conaciain  ii  Lageuia,  iutegramque  istam  Barouiam  iu  diouesi  iuisse 
Cloul'erteusi,  et  I'rovincia  Tuameusi — I'ostmodum  autem  per  Legem  Parlia- 
meutariam  ut  vocaut  territorium  illud  Lusmagb,  iu  Ditioue  olim  Dyuastaj 
Lougofordieusis ;  uuitum  fuit  comitatui  liegis,  adeo(jue,  et  Natioui,  Lageui;e 
salvis  tameu  curibus  llpiscopi  ('loui'erteusis,  et  Arciiiepiscopi  Tuameusis. 
Hinc  Territorium  illud  unica  coustausPiirocbia, intra  I'iues est Diocesis Clon- 

ferteusis  et  i^roviuciai  Tuameusis."    HibcDiia  JJoiiUiiicana,i).'\Ob-('> 

According  to  the  Book  of  Lectin,  written  previously  to  J 347,  vtlie  IMS.  of 
which  is  preserved  in  the  Library  of  the  Boyal  Irii^h  Academy,  and  which 
was  transluted  for  the  Irish  Archteological  Society,  by  the  late  Dr.  O'Douovau, 
the  ancestor  of  the  O'lMadden  Sept,  is  stated  to  have  been  Maine  Mor,  ruler 
of  Hy-Many.  In  O'FJaherty's  U(jij(jia,  the  origin  of  this  family  is  ascribed 
to  Eugenius  Buach. 

Camac,  the  son  of  L'arbry  Crum,  and  great  graudsou  of  Ballon,  had 
Eugenius  Fionu  and  i'lugeuius  Buach.  From  the  former,  O'Kelly,  Lord  uf 
Trainc  (or  liy-Many)  is  descended,  and  from  the  latter  is  sprung  O'.Madden, 
Lord  of  Siol  Anmacliadha,  and  Lusmach  on  the  other  side  of  the  Shannon, 
iu  the  county  of  (jalway.  Anmachadha,  the  son  of  Eugenius  Buac,has  given 
the  name  of  Silaumachadlia  to  the  possessions  of  his  posterity,  which  are 
situated  in  the  county  of  Galway,  opposite  Leiuster,  being  divided  from  it 
by  the  Eiver  Shanucui.     (0'Flaherty"s  Oifijiji",  vol.  2,  p.  "^  Uj. 

The  territory  of  Hy-Many  originally  extended  from  Clontuskert,  near 
Lauesborough,  in  the  county  of  Boscommon,  southwards  to  the  boundary 
of  Thomond,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  and  from  Athlone  westwards  to 
Seetin  and  Athenry  in  the  present  county  (Jalway.  It  is  also  stated  iu 
a  poem,  addressed  before  l-i?:}  to  Eoghau  OWladden,  which  is  cited  by 
O'Bonovan,  from  a  fragment  of  the  Book  of  Hy-Many,  (in  tbe  Library 
of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  H.  2.  7.  p.  lUU)  that  Oran  in  the  county 
of  Boscommon,  Lusmagh  in  the  Kings  County,  and  Laragh  Griau  in 
the  county  of  Clare,  were  all  portion  of  Hy-.Many,  which  further  extended 
from  Grian  to  Caradh,  and  included  Dunamou.  llais  Clutliraim  in  Lough 
Bhee,  and  Mis  Cealtlna  in  Lough  Dorghere.  '•  'J'lie  O'Maddeu  Country," 
which  was  included  iu  Hy-Mauy,  is  referred  to  in  a  remarkable  document 
addressed  to  the  Lord  Deputy  Sydney,  A.l).  loUG,  preserved  in  the  Bolls 
Office,  Dublin,  but  which  the  limited  space  here  available  i)recludes  citation 
in  this  connexion. 

After  the  Burkes  or  de  Burghs  had  established  themselves  iu  the  county 
Galway,  the  limits  of  Hy-Mauy,  observes  O'Donovan,  were  very  much  cir- 
cumscribed, the  Baronies  of  Leitrim,  Loughrea,  and  Athenry  being  seized  ou 
by  the  de  Burgo  or  Burises,  and  made  part  of  their  territory,  and  it  is  remarl  - 
able  that  in  the  year  15^0  O'Madden's  Country  was  no  longer  consiilered  a 
part  of  Hy-Mauy.  In  the  reign  of  Queen  I'.lizabeth,  it  consisted  only  of  liAe 
Baronies,  as  appears  from  a  document  amongst  the  "  Inrulments  tempore 
Elizabetlue, '  in  the  Auditor-Generals  Office,  Dublin,  dated  (ith  August  li)>-->. 
From  the  foregoing  references  we  learn  that  the  >iul  Aumachadha  or 
O'Madden  poriiou  of  Hy-Mauy  was  co-extensive  with  tiie  Barony  of  Lung- 
ford  in  the  county  of  Galway,  and  with  the  parish  of  Lusuagh  iu  the  Kings 
County  ou  the  east  side  of  the  Shannon,  which  formerly  was  included  in 
Galway,  as  also  was  Longford  castle  in  that  territory— O'Madden's  chief 
fortified  residence  or  stronghold. 

In  the  account  of  this  tribe  in  the  Life  of  St.  Grellan  (a  cotemporary  of 
St.  Patrick),  who  flourished  iu  the  fifth  century,  the  MSS-  of  which  is  in 
the  Library  of  tiie  lloyal  Irish  Academy,  Maine  Mor.  as  before  observed,  it) 


APPENDIX.  285 


sai'l  to  have  been  the  aucestor  of  all  the  Hy-Many  tribe.  We  are  told  that 
with  the  spiritual  assistauce  of  St.  (xrellau,  he  snccessfnlly  attacked  the 
l-'irbolg  Kiug,  who  was  then  the  Lord  of  the  country,  now  the  IJarouy  of 
Cioumacoweii,  iu  the  county  of  Galway,  and  having  slaiu  this  Firbolg  chief, 
established  himself  iu  that  territory.  Stories  of  this  kiud  are  not  conliued 
to  those  'tistaut  epochs  of  Celtic  tribal  warftire  with  which  we  are  now  con- 
cei'ued,  but  have  been  repeated  iu  other  climes  and  later  times,  in  aid  of  ad- 
venturers on  a  larger  scale.  The  patron  of  the  O' -Maddens  must  have  been 
"  a  most  forbearing  saint,"  as  the  princes  of  Hy-Many  were  much  given  to 
slaying  and  spoiling,  and  were  entitled  to  one  third  of  all  fines  for  killing  men 
tliroughout  the  province  of  Connaught."  St.  Clrellau  however  does  not 
appear  to  have  given  his  benisoii  to  the  "  strong-armed  O'lMaddeus,"  until 
he  had  provided  for  a  due  tribute  lor  himself  and  his  successors  ;  and  ulti- 
mately St.  Grellau  bequeathed  his  Crozier,  as  a  battle  standard,  to  the  victo- 
rious clan  of  Siol  Anmchadha,  by  whose  descendants  it  was  preserved,  down 
to  the  niuetci-uth  century. 

The  Tribes  and  Custoim^  of  Hij-Manij,  translated  from  the  ]MSS.  Bool: 
of  Li'ciin,  we  find  (p.  1-1.  17)  it  stated  in  a  poem  addressed  to  the  cele- 
l>rated  Eoghan  OWlaiUleu,  that  liis  ancestors  came  from  Clocher  niacin 
-Maidhain.  In  another  tract  in  same  volume,  a  long  list  is  given  of  O'Madden's 
l)redecessors  iu  the  chieftaincy  of  Hy  Many,  and  although  that  list  cannot, 
says  ( )'i)onovau,  be  considered  perfect,  without  it  nothing  like  an  accurate 
scries  of  the  early  chiefs  of  Hy-Many  could  now  be  given,  as  the  Annals  are 
imperfect.  According  to  this  manuscript,  the  first  of  these  chiefs  was  the 
Itefnre-rnentioned  .Maine  .Mor,ancestor  of  all  the  Hy-Many  Sept,  who  was  chief 
of  the  territory  for  fifty  years,  and  died  a  natural  death.  The  second,  Brasil, 
son  of  Maine  Mov,  chief  for  thirty  years,  who  also  died  a  natural  death, 
which  as  the  Celtic  writer  says  "  was  surprising,  as  he  had  been  much 
engaged  in  wars."  The  tbird  was  Faichra  Fin,  the  son  of  Brasil,  for  seven- 
teen years,  when  he  was  slain  by  his  brother,  ^Maiue  Mor.  In  the  poem 
Fiachra  Fin  is  styhnl  a  "  tower  in  conflict  anil  battle."  He  is  the  ancestor 
of  tlie  O'Naughtous  and  O'MuUallys.  or  1  allys,  the  progenitors  of  the 
celebrated  and  ill-fated  Count  Lally  de  Tollendal.  We  need  not  here  follow 
this  history  of  the  earlier  chiefs  of  this  clan,  from  Couall,  v/ho  w^as  fourth 
of  their  lineage,  down  to  Dearmid,  tlie  seventeenth  prince  of  the  O'Maddea 
line.  It  may  suffice  to  say  that  of  sixteen  succeeding  chiefs,  of  whom  a  few 
are  described  as  having  been  saints,  whilst  the  majority  are  spoken  of 
as  re.loubtabl.'  warriors,  only  four  appear  to  have  died  a  natural  death  ;  the 
re-t  from  the  year  ^u\)  down  to  ]nl4,  when  Tadlig  Mor  fell  by  the  side  of 
King  Brian   Born,  at  the  battle  of  Clontarf,  having  all  been  slain  in  field  or 

foray of   these  princes,  (iadhar.i,  Lor.l   of  Siol   AnmchaiUia,  or  the 

O'Madden  country,  the  twenty-seccud  chieftain  of  ily-Many,  is  the  last- 
mentioned  in  the  document  above  cited,  which  was  addressed  to  Eoghan 
OWIaddeu,  chief  of  Siol  Anmchadha  ami  Hy-.Many,  who  died  iu  the  year 
l;;i7,  according  to  the  Aiinala  of  the  Four  Master.^. 

When  0'. Madden  rose  to  the  chieftaincy  of  all  Hy  Many,  it  would 
appear  from  the  "Topographical  l'oem"'of  O'Dugan  (a  writer  wlio  died 
iu  ii{72),  tliat  the  M'Ullachan  or  Coulcgliau  was  the  chief  of  Siol 
Anmchadha.  But  in  the  Hook  of  T^eroii,  compiled  forty  years  subsequently 
(in  1418,1  it  is  stated  that  the  chiefs  nf  Siol  Anmchadha  are  the  MaduJiains 
or  O'Maddeus,  (tvV/,' Tribes  and  Customs  of  Hy-Many  p.  i;?.)  O'Bonovan 
cites  another  31 S.  preserved  in  the  Library  of  Trinity  College  Dublin,  also 
written  in  the  life-time  of  J<]oghan  O'.Madden,  in  which  his  pedigree  is  carried 
up  to  (radhra  Mor,  Prince  of  all  Hy-Many,  who  was  slain  in  10:^7.  Tliis  MS. 
being  one  of  the  most  curious  fragments  of  ancient  Irish  history  which  has 
descended  to  our  times,  and  throwing  much  light  on  the  pedigree  of 
O'Madden,  may  be  here  briefly  quoted — 


286 


APPENDIX. 


"There  is  a   trauqail,     beuigu,   great,     hardy,   sweet  voiee.l,    .eeuerous, 
vehement,     regal      kmg    over    the     Siol     Anmchadha,     aud    inis     king, 
is  the    noble    Eoghan,  sou  of  the    loud-voiced    .Alurchirulh,    son    oi   tlie 
lively-preying  Cathal,  son  of  the  expertly-wounding  JJiarmid,  son  of  the 
affluent  Madudan,   sou  of  the  bright-faced  Diarmid,  sou  of  the  munificent 
Madden,  son  of  the  fettering  Gadhra;  and  this  rapid-routing  Gadhra  was 
the  last  of  his  tribe,  who  had  dominion  over  the  third  of  the  province  of 
Smooth  Callows,  viz.,  that  region  extending  from  the  time  Griau,  in  the 
mountains,  to  the  bright  Caradh.      Aud   from   the   river    of    Gadhra    to 
that  of  Eoghan,  this  country  (Ireland)  has  been  divided  without  any  sole 
monarch  to  govern  it,  and  a  plague  came  to  bring  this  disunion  among  all 
the  chiefs — foreigners  came   over  the  green  seas  to  seize  on  it,  and  these 
foreigners  gained  one  day's  victory,  which  prepared  the  way  for  their  con- 
quest— the  victory  of  Leithridh  over  the  heroic  Jioderick,  so  that  the  Gaels 
remained  under  the  yoke  of  the  foreigners  for  a  perioil  of  five  above  seven 
score  bright  years.     Now  the  following   were   the   chiefs   of  the   territory 
during  this  period — viz.,  Madudau,  or  Madden  M or,  son  of  Diarmid.    He 
ruled  justly  over  his  native  principality.     After  AJadudan  Mor.  ruled  Meal- 
seachlaiu,  in  good  peace,  and  next  came  Caihal,  son  of  JMadudan,  who  was 
illustrious   for  hospitality   aud   muniiicence.     To    hiiu    succeeded  liis  sou 
Murchadh,   but  he  resigned  the    chieftaincy  of  his  own   accord,   and  went 
away  from  royal  rule  over  lauds,  to  Eome,to  resign  his  soul  to  the  Supreme 
King,  aud  his  body  to  the  cemetery  of  St.  Peter's — in  the  chief  city.       Aud 
it  was  no  wonder  that  his  great  son,  Eoghan  O'-Madden  shoidd  flourish  iu 
his  place,  as  he  has  flourished,  for  he  was  (has  been)  twenty  years  in  the 
famed  chieftainship,  undisturbed  in  his  prosperity  by  his  neighbours   and 
his  country  Tiot  oppressed  by  Lords  .  .  .  This  fair  prince  erected  for  a  habi- 
tation at  Magh  Bealaigh,  a  strong  castle  of  stone  aud  hue  timber,  the  like  of 
which  has  not   been  erected  by  any  chief  iu  Erin.     He  also  repaired  the 
churches  iu  general — taught  truth  to  the  chieftains — kept  his  people  from 
treachery  aud  fratricide,  checked    evil  customs,   and  taught  charity   aud 
humanity  in  his  goodly  districts.    He  wrested  from  his  neighbours  a  portion 
of  each  province,  viz  ,  the  western  extremity  of  iMeath,  which  is  under  his 
stewards,  and  the  northern  portion  of  Ormoiid,  which  is  under  his  high 
control."  .  ,  .   (In  reference  to  Eoghai)  0'. Madden,  the  late  Dr.  K  E.  Madden 
iu  his   MSS.  historical  account  of  this  family,  observes — "  In  my  table,  he 
is   numbered  I.,   iu   his    youth,   he    was    very    inimical  to     the   English 
interest  iu  Couuaught,  and  so  early  as  l-'>0(i  defeated  the  Clanricarde,  and 
slew  sixty-six  of  his  people.    Afterwards  liow^ever,  he  seemed  to  have  fought 
many  battles  on  the  English  side.     His  eldest  son,   Cathal,  was  shiiu  by  the 
Clanricardes  iu   1340.     He   had  a  daughter  named  Finola,   who   died  in 
1398). 

The  "Four  Masters,"  and  Mac Geoghegan,  from  the '•  Annals  of  Clou- 
macnoise,"  inform  us,  that  about  the  year  1  ?56,  considerable  warfare  raged 
between  the  habitant  Lords  of  English  race  settled  iu  Couuaught,  in  which 
the  Irish  chieftains  joined  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  the  English  of  West 
Couuaught  defeated  Mac  William  Uurke,  aud  killed  many  of  his  people — 
that  Edmund,  the  son  of  William,  who  was  ^on  of  Eichard  de  Burgo,  was 
slain  by  the  Irish  Sept  of  Siol  Anmchadha  (ihe  O'Madden's).  Whilst  at 
the  same  time  Eichard  Ogo  de  Burgo,  gained  a  signal  victory  over  the  people 
of  Edmund,  the  sou  of  Wihiam  de  Burgo  and  the  O'AJaddens,  iu  which 
conflict,  "  ^ixteen  of  the  Nobles  of  the  Siol  Anmchadha  was  slain,"  (vide 
Tracts  relatimj  to  Ireland,  published  by  the  Irish  Archreological  Society, 
vol.  2,  p.  9N,  Dublin,  ISi:!.) 

iMurchadh  or  Morouyh  O'Madden,  sou  of  the  preceding.  Chief 
of  the  Sept  for  twenty  tour  years,  died  iu  1:j71,  and  was  116th  iu 
descent    from    Owen    Luac.      In    the   "  Anuals    of    the  Four   Masters," 


APPENDIX.  987 


he  is  styled  "  General,  Patron  of  the  Literati,  the  poor  and  the 
needy  of  Ireland."  He  was  killed  in  a  predatory  excursion  in  Ormonde, 
leaving  a  son,  ami  a  daughter  named  More.  This  Lady  More  married  Mac 
William  Burke,  Lord  of  Clanricarde,  and  died  in  1383.  The  son,  i<:oghau 
j,lor  O'Madden  (also  mentioned  as  Owen  McMurrough  O'Maddeu,  iu  the 
Annals  of  Cloniiiacnoise),  succeeded  his  father,  and  died  in  1411.  He  was 
replaceil  by  Miuchadh  or  Morough  O'Madden  his  son,  who  is  described  ill 
the  annals  as  •'  a  man  of  mighty  arm,  and  good  jurisdiction,"  and  iu  some 
of  the  pedigrees  is  said  to  have  founded  the  Abbey  of  Meelick  iu  tlie  year 
iiol.  But  in  the  ••  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,"  the  foundation  of  that 
Abbe.y  is  ascribed  to  his  successor  in  the  chieftaincy,  a.d.  1479.  The 
Monastery  of  Meelick,  on  the  Shannon  banks,  in  the  diocese  of  Clonfert, 
was  founded  for  Franciscan  Friars  by  O'Madden,  who  selected  a  burial- 
place  for  himself  in  it."  ...  It  is  true,  however,  that  he  (Murchadh), 
granted  a  chapel  at  Portumna  together  with  the  village  to  the  Dominicans, 
who  founded  on  the  spot  a  Keligious  House,  under  the  authority  of  a  Bull 
from  Pope  Martin  V.,  dated  October  Uth,  1420.  This  Bull  is  printed  in  the 
Hibernia  Dominicana  by  De  Burgo.  ,  .  .  Murchadh  had  three  sons,  two  of 
whom  were  slain  by  their  kinsman,  Cabthach  or  Coffey  O'Madden,  iu  the 
year  14S6.     The  line  being  thence  continued  by  his  third  son,  Eoghan. 

119th  of  this  family,  from  Owen  Buac,  Eoghan  Carragh  O'l^Iadden  was 
succeeded  by  his  son,  Murchadh  Keagh,  who  left  four  sons  and  one  daughter. 
John  O'Madden  followed  his  father  (Murchadh),  and  was  succeeded  by 
his  son,  Brasil  O'Madden,  on  wiiose  death  his  sou  John  became  chieftain  ; 
and  two  years  subsequently  iu  550,  he  being  slain  by  Brasil  Dubh  OMad- 
den,  the  chieftaincy  of  Siol  Anmchadha  was  divided  between  the  latter 
and  the  surviving  brother  of  John,  viz.,  Mealachliu  Modarha.  In  1540 
the  Lord  Deputy  was  instructed  to  confirm  treaties  between  the  king  and 
"  "Mealachlin  O'Madden  and  Hugh  O'Madden,  chiefs  of  their  country." 
{Vide  State  Papers,   Temp.  Henry   IT//.,  p.  171). 

12:1 — The  next,  Domhuall  or  Donal  O'Madden,  son  of  John  ;  "  he  was  the 
last  chief,"  says  O'Donovan,  "  who  ruled  the  territory  of  Anmchadha  or 
Silanchia  according  to  the  old  Irish  system,  and  was  the  most  powerful  and 
celebrated  chieftain  since  the  time  of  Eoghan  or  Owen  O'Madden,  who 
died  in  1:347.''  Queen  Elizabeth  appointed  Donal  O'Madden  "  Captain 
of  his  Nation  "  in  15G7,  after  clearing  himself  of  the  charge  of  slaying 
his  predecessor,  and  paying  a  fine  of  eighty  cows  to  the  Lord  Deputy,  Sir 
Henry  Sydney.  He  attended  a  parliament  convened  in  Dublin  by  Lord 
Deputy  Per.  tt  in  l.")80,  to  which  the  Irish  Chieftains  were  summoned. 
Amongst  the  multitudes  of  O's  and  of  Mac's,  great  renown  in  their  several 
territoiies,  who  attended  this  Irish  Parliament,  as  given  by  the  "Four 
Masters,"  we  lind  Donal  O'Maddeu,  son  of  John,  son  of  Brasil  and  also 
his  kinsman,  the  Earl  of  Clanricarde,  Ulick,  sou  of  Ulick  Na  Grean  (of  the 
lieads). 

To  understand  the  object  of  this  Assembly,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  it  was  not  until  late  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  that  the  province  of 
Connaught  was  brought  into  subjection  to  the  crown  and  laws  of  England. 
"The  proceedings  by  which  that  event  was  achieved,"  says  Hardiman, 
"were  commenced  by  the  Lord  Deputy,  Sir  Henry  Sydney,  in  1575,  and 
completed  by  a  succeeding  Deputy,  Sir  John  Perrott,  in  15b5.  The  project 
was  to  divide  the  provinces  into  shires,  then  to  induce  the  Lords  and  Chief- 
tains to  receive  Sheriffs  into  their  shires,  and  finally  to  prevail  on  the  Chiefs 
themselves  to  surrender  their  Irish  titles  and  tenures,  and  to  receive  back 
their  possessions  by  patents  from  the  Crown,  to  descend  in  hereditary  succes- 
sion, according  to  the  laws  of  England."  {Hardimaii's  Notes  to  O'Flahertifs 
Description  of  West  Connaught).  The  end  of  this  was  the  destruction  of 
the  power  of  the  hereditary  Irish  Princes,  which  was  carried  out  by  what 


288 


APPEND  rx. 


was  termed  "  Indentures  of  Composition,''  by  which  many  of  the  0' Kelly's  , 
O'Flalierty's,  O'Maddpn's,  Clanricarde's,  Bermingham's,  and  other  ancient 
Counaught  families  agreed  henceforth  to  bold  their  lands  bytenuieol 
knight  service  from  the  Crown.  Amongst  those  who  then  accepted  this 
settlement  were  some  members  of  the  Siol  Aurachadha  Sept,  whose  territory 
in  the  document  referred  to  is  described  as  '•  J'he  O'Aladdeu  Country, 
otherwise  called  Sillauiughadii  or  Silanchia,"  in  the  county  of  Clalway.  "  In 
witness  thereof,  said  Lords  and  Chieftains  have  put  their  Seals,  and  sub- 
scribed their  names  this  day,  September,  \')8'):  Stephen  ( Bishop)  of  Clonfert, 
Owen  O'Aladden,  Donal  McBrasil  O'Madden,  itc,  Ac."  In  this  Indenture, 
the  O'AIaddeu's  Barony  of  Longford  is  stated  to  include  '^'j^)  quarters  of 
land,  each  quarter  containing  I'^O  acres. 

In  the  Calendar  of  the  State  Papers  relating  to  Ireland,  lu09  to  157-),  we 
find  frequent  mention  of  the  O'Madden  Chieftains.  Thus  amongst  these 
papers,  Temp.  Heniij  VIII.,  vol.  viii,  we  find  letters  of  Stephen  Fitz- 
Henry  respecting  operations  Of  the  army  against  Murrough  O'Brien, 
and  reporting  the  capture  and  submission  of  several  castles,  including  those 
of  Hugh  and  Managhlyn  O'Madden.  In  tlie  State  Papers  Temp.  Klizaheth, 
nnder  date,  (Ireenwich,  May  21st  lo(il,  is  a  letter — "  The  Queeu  to  O'Madden 
and  O'Shauglmessy  requiring  them  to  assist  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  Sussex,  in 
appreliending  Sbane  O'Neill  "  (Latin).  In  the  "  State  I 'apers,  Ireland,"  we 
also  find  fp.  "-24.8)  nnder  date  August  5th,  15<)4,  a  letter  from  the  Lord 
Justices  and  Council  to  O'Madden,  in  reference  to  report,  '•  that  some  of  his 
people  have  joined  the  rebels  of  the  INIores  and  Conors.'  In  the  same  col- 
lection, September  1st,  1.^)79,  there  is  another  letter  from  the  Mayor  of 
Limerick  to  the  Lord  President  of  IMungter,  stating  that  the  Earl  of  Clanri- 
carde's  son  and  a  great  force  have  passed  the  Sliannon,  wi;li  O'Madden's 
assistance.'' 

Several  years  subsequently,  Donal  O'Madden  is  laentioned  in  the  Annals 
as  being  in  open  rebellion.  *' In  that  year,  15!)o,"  says  O'Donovan, 
"  Cloghan,  one  of  his  castles  in  the  district  of  Lusmagh,  on  the  east  of  the 
Shannon,  was  summoned  to  surrender  to  the  Lord  Deputy,  Sir  William 
Kussell.  but  O'Madden's  people  replied  that  the;,  would  not  surrender  even 
though  all  the  soldiers  were  Deputies."  Uliimately,  however,  the  castle  was 
taken  by  storm  and  burned  to  the  ground,  the  O'Aladden  garrison  being 
ruthlessly  put  to  the  sword,  a  fate  wliich  their  Chieftain,  Donal  O'Aladden 
escaped,  by  his  absence  at  the  time,  on  one  of  his  marauding  expeditions. 
(Vide  Cox.  Hist.,  vol.  i,  p.  409).  A  full  account  of  this  episode,  in  the 
Conquest  of  Ireland,  may  be  found  in  a  remarkable  State  Paper,  cited  by 
O'Donovan,  viz.,  "Journal  of  Sir  William  Hussell,  Lord  Deputy  of  Ireland  " 
(in  MSS.  Archives,  47'28,  British  Museum,  to  which  Institution  it  was  pre- 
sented by  Lord  Willoughby  of  Farnham,  iHth  Alay  17(U,  Fnl.  (51  B).— 

"  Thursdaie,  11th  March  1505  .  .  .  Irom  Piathingelduld— My  Lord  rode 
to  O'AIadden's  Castle  in  liusmagh,  ])efore  which  liee  encamped  in  cominge 
to  which  we  passed  thro'  a  strait  pace  (pass)  of  four  miles  in  length. 
O'Aladden  himself  beinge  gone  out  in  action  of  rebellion,  and  he  left  a  ward 
of  his  principall  men  in  his  castle,  whoe  assoome  as  they  perceaved  my  Lord 
to  aproach  neare,  they  sett  three  of  the  honses  on  fire,  which  hurt  two  of 
our  soldiers  and  a  boye,  and  made  shott  at  us  out  of  the  Castle.  And  being 
sent  to  by  my  Lord  to  yield  upp  the  Castle  to  the  Queene,  there  answere  was 
to  Captain  Thomas  Lea,  that  if  all  that  came  in  his  Lords  companie,  were 
Deputies,  they  would  not  yield,  but  said  they  would  trust  to  the  strength  of 
there  Castle,  and  hoped  by  to-morrowe  that  the  Deputie  and  his  companie 
should  stande  in  as  grate  feare  as  they  then  were,  expecting  as  it  should 
seeme  some  ayde  to  lelieve  them.  That  night,  my  Lord  appointed  Captain 
Izod  to  keepe  a  sure  watcii  aboute  the  saide  Castle,  for  that  a  mayne  bogg 
was  adjoining  thereto,  and  appointed  the  kearne  witli  certain  souldiers  to 


APPENDIX. 


289 


watche,  lest  they  should  make  an  attempt  o  escape  that  way.  .  .  .  About 
midnight,  my  Lord  visited  the  watche,  and  underrtandinge  of  some  women 
to  be  within  the  castle,  sent  to  advise  them  to  put  forth  their  women,  for 
that  hee  intended  next  morninge  to  assault  the  Castle  with  fire  and  sword, 
but  they  refused  soe  to  doe,  and  would  not  suffer  their  women  to  come  forth, 

Fridaie,  12th  March. — My  Lord  continued  before  the  Castle,  and  as  pre- 
paration was  makinge  for  fireworks,  to  fire  the  Castle,  one  in  Sir  W.  Clarke's 
companie  being  nere  the  Castle  by  making  tryall,  cast  upp  a  fire  brand  to 
the  topp  of  the  roof 8  which  greatlie  dismaide  them,  whereupon  the  alarum 
was  strooke  upp,  and  whilst  our  shoot  plaide  at  theire  spike  holes,  a  fire  was 
maide  to  the  gate  and  doore  which  smothered  manie  of  them,  and  with  all 
the  souldiers  made  a  breache  in  tlie  wall  and  entered  the  Castle  and  took 
manie  of  them  alive,  most  of  which  were  cast  over  the  walls  and  soe 
executed.  And  the  whole  nomber  which  were  burnd  and  kild  in  the  Castle 
were  forty-sixe  persons,  besides  t\Y0  women  and  a  boye  which  were  saved  Ijy 
my  Lords  appointment." 

Fol.  04. — "  The  names  of  such  chiefe  men  as  were  kilde  in  the  Castle  of 
Cloghan  0' Madden,  at  tbe  wiuninge  thereof,  who  were  the  principall  tighting 
men,  the  Xllth  of  March  1592,  Sliane  McBrasil  O'Madden  of  Corylagher, 
gent. ;  Donagh  Mc  O'Madden  of  'J'omhaligli,  gent.  Owen  McShane 
O'Madden  of  Tomhaligh,  gent. ;  Molaghlin,  Duffe,  McColeghan  of  Baliyma- 
coleghan,  gent.  The  Captain  of  Shott  and  his  two  sonnes,  Manose  Oge 
O'Eegan  of  O'Eourke's  countrie,  Captain  of  Shott,  O'Eourke's  mother, 
iu-others,  sonnes,  Shane  I'ucmeny  O'Connor  of  the  countie  of  Sligo,  gent. : 
who  said  when  hee  was  !,i!;en,  that  he  was  a  good  prisoner  to  bee  ransomed. 
.  .  .  More  and  two  ot!:er  gent,,  of  O'Eourkes  countrie,  whose  names  are 
unknown. 

"  The  names  of  the  chiefe  men  kilde  in  the  conflict  on  the  dale  before  the 
winninge  of  the  Castle,  viz.: — Ambrose  McMolaghline,  Mothere  O'Madden 
of  Clare  Madden,  gent. ;  Cohedge  Oge  O'Madden,  gent,  of  the  same  ;  Leve 
O  Madden  of  Clare,  gent. ;  three  landed  men,  Leve  O'Connor  of  ye  countie 
of  Sligo,  chief,  gent.,  a  leader  of  Shott  and  Scotts,  he  was  buried  at  Meeliidc 
Abbey;  Ferdoragh  McFverye,  a  Captain  of  Scotts;  ]'>ver  McGarell  of 
Galw'ay,  gent.  ;  McCounell,  Chiefe  of  the  Scotts  ;  UHck  Eurke,  McEdmund 
Eurke  of  Balyely,  gent. ;  etc.,  &c.  The  rest  were  shott,  bowuen,  and  kearne, 
the  whole  nomber  of  kilde  and  drowned  (besides  those  in  the  castle)  were 
seven  score  and  upwards,  besides  some  hurt  v.hich  escaped  and  fled  aw^ay  in 
great  amasement." 

In  the  very  year  in  which  so  many  gallant  gentlemen  and  devoted  mem- 
bers of  this  Sept  were  thus  put  to  the  sword  in  defence  of  O'Madden's 
Castle  of  Cloghan,  their  Chieftnin,  appears,  from  the  Annals  of  the  Four 
Masters,  to  have  been  engaged  in  an  inexplicable  quarrel  with  his  kins- 
men, which  is  thus  referred  to  by  the  Aunalsts.  "In  1559  O'Donnell 
was  also  joined  by  all  the  O'^kladden's  except  The  O'Madden  himself,  and  his 
son  Anmacbadha,  upon  which  the  sons  of  Eedmond  Na  Scuadh,  son  of 
Ulick  Burke,  and  the  other  disaffected  Burkes  already  mentioned,  attacked 
and  destroyed  Meelick,  O'Madden's  mansion-seat,  Tir  Lethair,  and  all  the 
cnstles  of  ills  territory  except  Longford.  They  plundered  and  destroyed 
Clonfert-Bredan,  and  took  the  Bishop  of  tliat  See  prisoner.  Amongst 
those  plundered  was  Eoghan  Dubh,  son  of  Melnghlin  Babh  O'Madden  of 
the  territorv  of  Eusmagh.'' 

"  Domhnell  or  Donal  O'Madden,  was  evidently,"  say  Dr.  E.  E.  Madden, 
"  an  unscrupulous,  wily,  unprincipled  person,  though  he  could  not  save  his 
castle,  he  managed  to  preserve  his  property.  In  l(i(i2  •  he  came  in '  and 
apparently  manifested  his  fealty  that  yt  ar  by  attacking  the  brave  Eon;il 
O'Sullivan    lUare,  who   after  the  disastrous  defeat  of  the  Irish  at  Kinsalc. 


290  AP^^^^'DTx. 


and  the  taking  of  the  Castle  of  Dnnboy,  was  passing  through  O'Madden's 
country  on  his  retreat  to  O'liourke.  It  may  be  for  this  act  that  he  was 
eventually  pardoned  by  King  James  I.,  as  O'Donovan  thinks  he  was,  having 
settled  his  property  on  his  sons  by  deed  according  to  the  laws  of  England.'' 

By  this  deed  "  Donal  O'Madden  of  Longford,  in  the  county  of  Galway, 
'  Captain  of  his  Nation,'  granted  his  manor  and  Castle  of  Longford,  and  all 
his  other  property  in  the  county  of  Galway,  to  hold  for  the  use  of  Ambrose, 
otherwise  Anmchadha  O'Madden,  son  and  heir  of  the  said  Donal,  and  his 
heirs  male,  remainder  the  Brasil  O'Madden,  son  of  Hugh  O'Madden,  one  of 
the  sons  of  the  said  Donal  O'^Nladdeu,  and  his  heirs  male,  remainder  to  the 
lieirs  general  of  Ambrose  O'Madden  for  ever."  In  the  succeeding  section 
may  bo  found  an  ficcount  of  the  part  taken  by  the  descendants  of  the 
ancient  chieftains  oi'  Silanchia,  as  adherents  of  the  royalist  and  Catholic 
side  throughout  the  long  and  disastrous  civil  wars  in  Ireland  during  the 
periods  of  the  Revolution,  Commonwealth,  and  Restoration ;  and  of  the  conse- 
quent repeated  confiscations  of  their  hereditary  property,  their  exile  and 
services  in  the  French  and  other  foreign  armies,  down  to  the  close  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century. 

124. — Anmchadha  or  Ambrose  O'Madden,  son  of  the  above  Donal,  died  in 
1 087,  being  then  succeeded  by  his  son,  John  Madden,  whose  property  was  for- 
feited in  the  Civil  Wars  of  lOil.  But  in  1677,  under  the  Act  of  Settlement, 
by  a  grant  dated  August  Gth,  1677,  this  John  was  restored  to  a  portion  of 
his  grandfathers  property,  viz.  the  lands  of  Clonefeagau,  Attickey,  Mota, 
and  Ballybranagh  now  Walshestown,  near  Eyrecourt,  in  the  Barony  of 
J^ongford  and  the  county  of  Galway.  He  had  two  sous,  Daniel  and  Patrick, 
the  former,  Daniel,  is  the  last  of  his  race  given  by  O'Farrell  in  his  Lina 
Antique,  and  is  there  described  as  "the  head  of  the  O'Madden's,'' which 
adds  O'Donovan,  undoubtedly  he  was.  This  Daniel  O'Madden  was  succeeded 
by  his  son  Brasil,  ISo.  127  in  this  pedigree  (who,  says  the  late  Dr.  Richard 
R.  Madden,  was  my  great  grandfather),  and  who  by  his  will,  dated  in  1745, 
bequeathed  his  property  to  his  son  Ambrose,  leaving,  mter  (iliis,  Edward 
and  one  daughter,  Mary. 

[The  latter,  who  married  Christopher  M'I)onnell,Esq.,  of  Kileen  Co.  Dublin, 
grandfather  of  the  late  Sir  Edward  M'Donnell,  of  Merrion  Square,  Dublin,  had 
two  other  brothers,  viz.,  John,  born  in  17(iil,  (of  whom  presently)  and  Edward, 
born  in  1711,  The  last  mentioned  settled  at  Clonskeagh,  near  Dublin,  where 
he  died,  leaving  considerable  jjroperty  to  his  son  William  of  Merchants  Quay, 
Dublin,  who  married  Miss  M.  M'Evoy,  of  Ballymote,  Co.  Meath,  and  died 
l*^  17,  leaving  issue  inter  aliis  a  daughter,  Mary,  married  to  Edward  Ryan, 
Esq.,  of  Dublin,  by  which  marriage  was  Eliza,  married  to  Joseph  Halpin, 
Esq.,  of  Gowran  Hall,  who  died  about  1876.] 

128. — Ambrose  Madden,  who  is  mentioned  as  No.  41  in  O'Donovan's 
"  Madden  Pedigree,"'  and  as  129  in  O'Hart's  "  Irish  Pedifjrees,''  son  of  Daniel 
O'Madden,  was  in  1779  in  possession  of  his  father's  estate.  He  was  married 
to  Margery,  daughter  of  Malacliy  Fallon,  Esq.,  of  Ballynahan,  in  the  cotmty 
of  Roscommon,  and  according  to  O'Hart's  pedigree,  had  Brasil,  who  was 
never  in  possession,  as  his  father  survived  him,  being  succeeded  under 
deed  of  settlement.  1791,  by  Ambrose  Madden  of  Streamstown,  his 
grandson,  who  married  in  1810,  and  had  issue,  Brasil,*  married  to  Julietta, 
daughter  of  Francis  Lynch  of  Omey. 

["In  reference  to  the  above  mentioned  marriage  of  Margery  Fallon,  daughter 
of  Malachy  Fallon  of  Ballynahan,  to  Ambrose  ]Madden,  I  have  to  remark 

*  A  sister  of  this  Brasil  (son  of  Ambrose),  married  Madden  of  Fahy,  "  whose  son,  Laurence 
Madi^en  of  Fahy,"  says  O'Donovan,  -writing  in  1843,  "  still  retains  the  fee-simple  possession  of 
three  hundred  acres  of  the  orisrinal  tonitnry,  hut  Limrences's  podierree  on  the  fatlier's  side  has 
not  been  traced." 


APPENDIX,  291 


(sajs  Dr.  E.  E.  Madden  in  the  MSS.  before  cited),  that  my  father's  claim  to 
kindred  induced  me  to  make  inquiry  of  the  surviving  members  of  the  family 
at  Ballyiiaghau,  respecting  Malachy  and  his  children.  INIalachy  Fallon  fought 
a  duelwitli  Mr.  James  Dillon  of  Ouleen,  and  killed  that  gentleman.  Patrick 
Fallon  the  son  of  3Ialachy,  challenged  and  fought  the  late  Lord  French. 
Previous  to  that  duel,  ^lalachy  is  said  to  have  instructed  his  son  how  to 
handle  the  pistol.  In  the  encounter,  Pat  had  the  first  fire,  and  shot  away  a 
button  from  his  adversarie's  coat,  but  Lord  French  did  not  fire,  and  so  the 
affair  ended  much  to  the  disgust  of  the  sanguinary  Malachy,  who  as  I  was  in- 
formed bj^  one  of  his  descendants,  was  very  indignant  with  his  son  for  not 
shooting  his  Lordship.  The  family  proclivity  for  duelling  was  more  imf  ortuu- 
ately  evinced  by  Malachy's  grandson,  James  Fallon,  who  fought  and  shot  Mr. 
Bellew,  uncle  to  the  present  Sir  Michael  Dillon  I'ellew.  I  have  a  vivid  recol- 
lection of  Malachy  Fallon's  eldest  son,  Edward,  at  my  father's  house  astonish- 
ing his  guests,  and  sober-minded  kinsman,  Edward  Madden,  with  comic  songs, 
not  remarkable  for  their  propriety  and  extraordinary  narratives  of  desperate 
duels,  celebrated  races,  and  famous  sporting  or  shooting  exploits.  One  of 
this  mad-cap  young  ( ralway  gentleman's  favourite  songs,  when  my  father 
had  left  the  talDle,  began  with  the  words  "  My  wife  she  is  the  Queen  of  all 
sluts."  From  his  sporting  propensities  and  patriotic  spoutings  after  din- 
ner particularly,  he  was  complimented  by  his  companions,  by  the  soubriquet 
of  "  Grattan."  He  died  in  18-^0,  aged  about  forty.  Malachy  Fallon  and  all 
his  descendants  are  buried  at  Dysart,  three  miles  from  Ballynaghan."] 

129. — John  Madden  of  Kilternan,  near  Enniskerry,  in  the  county  of  Wick- 
low  (No.  128  in  O'Hart's  pedigree),  was  second  son  of  the  above-mentioned 
Brasil  Madden,  of  Eyre  Court  and  Meelick,  in  the  county  of  Galway.  He 
was  born  circa  170«,  and  settled  in  Wicldow  in  1728.  Married  Miss  Anna 
Lee  of  Macclesfield  in  1730,  and  died  at  Clonskeagh,  near  Dublin,  in 
1796,  leaving  issue  inter  oUis  Edward  (of  whom  hereafter),  .Joseph,  James, 
Benjamin,  Jane,  and  Mary.  Of  these  children  of  John  Madden,  the  second, 
Joseph, born  in  1745,  settled  at  Donnybrook,  married  Miss  Eleanor  Byrne,  died 
in  1709,  leaving  two  sons,  namely,  John,  born  1779,  died  1851,  and  Peter, 
born  1784:,  died  1841,  and  several  daughters,  of  whom  the  youngest,  Mary, 
was  married  in  1802  to  Peter  Dillon,  Esq.,  whose  daughter  was  mother  to 
the  distinguished  soldier  and  writer.  General  Sir  William  Butler,  K.C.B., 
now  commanding  in  Egypt. 

[...."  ^ly  grandfather,  John  ^Madden  of  Enniskerry,"  says  Dr.  Eichard 
Eobert  Madden,  "was  a  buck  in  his  day — a  fox-hunting,  horse-riding,  scarlet- 
coated,  buckskin  wearing  gentleman.  On  one  of  his  racing  expeditions  to 
England,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  Miss  Anne  Lee  of  Macclesfield,  ran 
away  with  this  young  lady,  and  married  her.  On  the  first  Sunday  after 
returning  from  their  honeymoon  to  Enniskerry,  my  worthy  grandfather,  ac- 
companied by  his  bride,  riding  behind  him  on  a  pillion,  as  the  custom  was 
in  those  days,  set  out  for  the  Protestant  church  of  Kilternan,  and  as  he 
passed  the  Eoman  CathoHc  chapel  in  the  same  locality,  he  said  :  "  There  is 
my  place  of  worship,  and  after  I  have  left  you  at  your  church  I  will  come 
back  to  mine."  Whereupon  my  complaisant  grandfather  replied  :  "  If  this 
place  is  good  enough  for  you  my  dear,  it  might  be  the  same  for  me ;  stop 
here,  and  we  will  go  in  together."  From  that  time  my  grandmother  was  a 
Eoman  Catholic,  and  I  believe  a  very  pious  and  good  woman.  But  mv 
grandfather  followed  the  hounds  too  much,  and  his  business  too  little,  and 
so  eventually  became  embarrassed,  and  removed  to  Clonskeagh,  near  Dublin, 
where  he  died  about  1769.  They  had  four  sons  and  three  daughters.  Their 
eldest  son,  my  father,  the  late  Edward  Madden  of  Wormwood  Gate,  was 
born  17th  November  17.39,  at  Kilternan.  near  Enniskerry,  and  went  to  a 
school  which,  in  those  good  old  days  of  penal  law  persecution,  was  kept  in 
the  adjacent  ruins  of  the  ancient  castle  of  Kilgobbin.    In  after  years,  in  his 

'20  * 


992  APPKNDIX. 


Svmclay  walks,  accompanied  by  some  of  his  children,  my  father  used  to  point 
out  the  remains  of  this  old  castle  where  his  early  education  had  been  thus  im- 
parted (not  without  much  risk  to  the  teacher  and  pupils  of  that  proscribed 

Catholic  school) — and  which  stands  about  a  mile  from  the  scalp and  a 

quarter  of  a  mile  from  what  was  known  as  the  '  Upper  Eoad,'  between 
Enniskerry  and  Dundrum.  Near  this  is  the  old  burial-ground  of  Killeigar 
where  some  of  my  father's  family  were  interred.] 

1:50.— Edward  Madden  (No.  129  in  O'Hart's  pedigree),  was  born  in  1730,  and 
died  in  his  01st  year,  Novemljer  20th,  1820,  interred  in  Donnybrook.  In 
an  article  published  in  The  Dublin  Post  on  the  occasion  of  his  death  in 
November  1830,  Ixlward  Madden  is  described  as  "An  upright  man,  just  in 
all  his  dealings,  prud^^nt  and  moderate  in  his  opinions,  singularly  pious,  very 
chiiritable,  humane  and  tolerant.  He  interl'ered  with  no  man's  sentiments 
on  controversial  subjects,  and  during  his  whole  life  he  suffered  nothing  to 
interrupt  his  own  religious  duties.  Like  the  devout  Simeon,  from  his  youth 
upwards  he  was'  daily  to  be  seen  in  the  temple  of  the  Lonl  Remembering 
his  Crea,tor  in  the  days  of  his  youth,  he  departed. not  from  him  in  his  old  age  ; 
and  in  his  last  hours,  full  of  pence  and  retaining  unimpair.Hl  his  mental 
faculties,  he  steadily  and  serenely  contemplated  death,  and  spoke  of  his  pas- 
sage to  eternity  as  one  might  speak  of  an  approaching  journey  to  another 
country,  happier  and  better  than  the  one  he  was  about  to  leave."  Before  the 
Union  he  was  an  eminent  manufacturer  in  Wormwood-gate,  Dublin,  and  in 
1792  his  name  is  to  be  found  amongst  those  of  the  '  Delegates '  appointed  by 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland  to  take  the  sense  of  the  whole  people  on  the  subject 
of  their  existing  grievances  and  the  constitutional  means  to  be  adopted  for 
their  redress.  It  was  the  first  time  that  object  was  attempted  ;  and  the 
success  of  that  memorable  effort,  on  the  presentation  of  their  petition  to  the 
king  by  their  chosen  Delegates,  was  the  date  of  the  earliest  concession  made 
to  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  of  any  moment,  viz.,  that  of  ITOo.  He  married 
first  Mademoiselle  Marie  Duras  of  Bordeaux,  and  had  issue  six  children,  all 
since  deceased.  [In  1701  ]M.  Duras  died  in  ]>ordeaux,  leaving  a  pro- 
perty, and  by  his  will  nominated  as  his  executor  and  residuary  legatee, 
Edward  Madden.  This  estate  howevc;-,  was  so  destroyed  during  the 
French  Revolution,  as  to  have  scarcely  a  remnant  recoverable  by  those  to 
whom  it  was  bequeathed,  being  seized  by  the  Revolutionary  Govern- 
ment as  British  property,  though  sul  sequently  at  the  peace  of  1802, 
some  useless  attempts  were  made  to  effect  the  restoration  of  the  se- 
questered inheritance.  Shortly  after  the  death  of  M.  Duras  his  residuary 
legatee,  Edward  Madden,  undertook  what  was  then  a  long  and  difficult  jour- 
ney to  Bordeaux  to  look  after  this  property.  The  notes  still  existing  of 
that  visit  to  France,  where  he  remained  for  some  months,  during  the  reign 
of  terror  (KU)  years  ago),  present  a  curious  contrast  to  the  conditions  of  Con- 
tinental travel  now.  The  passage  from  Dublin  to  Holyhead  for  instance, 
occupied  twenty-four  hours,  and  from  Dover  to  (Jalais,  thirty-seven  hours, 
whilst  his  hill  for  ten  weeks  stay  in  the  Hotel  de  Angleterre  at  Bordeaux, 
was  but  40G  francs.] 

Edward  Madden  married,  secondlj^  Miss  Elizabeth  Forde,  youngest 
daughter  of  Thaddeus  Forde,  Esq.,  of  Cony,  county  of  Leitrim,  and  of 
Elizabeth,  his  wii'o  (daughter  of  Thaddeus  Lyons  of  Lyonstown,  in  the 
county  of  Roscommon,  Esq..)  of  which  marriage  there  was  issue,  inter  aliis 
five  sons,  who  attained  mature  age,  viz.,  Edward,  born  17N5,  died  1814: 
Henry,  born  1788,  died  18:30  ;  William,  born  1703,  died  1810  ;  James,  born 
1705,  died  1H28  ;  Richard  Robert  (of  whom  hereafter),  born  17  98.  died  ls86. 
and  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  horn  i787. 

[Miss  Elizabeth  INladden  married  in  1815  Bryan  Cogan,  Esq.,  of  Athgarret, 
in  the  county  of  Kildare  and  of  the  city  of  Dublin,  who  died  in  18:10,  leaving 
issue,  firstly,  t/ie  Jii^lit  Hon.  William  Forde  Cogan,  P.C.,  D.L.,  of  Tinode, 
county  of  Widdow,  formerly  for  twenty-five  years  M,P,  for  the  county  of  Kil- 


APPENDIX.  ~"^0 


dare  M.A.  and  gold  medallist,  T. CD.,  succeeded  his  uncle,  Matthew  Cogan 
Es  ,  o  Tinodet  Wicklovv,  in  1^50,  married  in  1858  Gertrude,  daughter  ot 
Francis  Kyan,E'sq.  And  secondly,  four  ^^f^g^^^^^^  ••  ^^^^^-f  .^^l^^^^ 
rine  deceased:  Margaret,  deceased ;  and  Lizzie.  In  18(.-.  Mis.  Elizabeth 
"o'ai^ied--  e.ulea^ed  to  all  who  knew  her,  as  a  loving  mother,  a  wise  coun- 
KPlfor  a  "enerons  friend  to  the  poor  and  friendless.'  ]  ,  ,,  .    ,      -, 

SL-lUchlvd  liobert  Madden.  M.D.,  F.E.C.S.E.  (the  130th  of  tins   amilv 
in  descent  from  Eoghan  Buac,  according  to  O'Hart),  was  born  August  S^ml 
1798,  and  died  5th  February  1887.     He  was  the  21st  and  youngest  child  otle 
abov^  mentioned  Edward  Madden.     Havmg  been  educated  tor  the  medica 
profession  at  first   in  Ireland  and  subseciuently  m  England,  France,  and 
Italy,  he  resided   for   several   years  m  the  East.     After  his  marriage  with 
Aliss  Khnslie  in  is2s,  he  settled  down  to  practice  as  a  physician  m  Ciuzou- 
st  eei    Mavikir.  London.     His  sympathy  with  the  Anti-Slavery  movement 
however,  led  him  to  reliuquisl.  this,  .ml  in  18:]:5  he  accepted  an  appomtment 
as  Special    Magistrate    for    the  Abolition  of    Ne^^vo   Slavery   m   Jamaica. 
In  this  office  as  in  every  phase  oi  his  long  life  his  rule  of  conduct  was 
directed  bv  a  fearless  rectitude,  love  of  justice  and  humanity,  to  which  pei- 
Honal  interests  of  his  own  were  invariably  subordinated    1  or  s^me  years  sub- 
sequentlv  he  was  employed  in  Anti-Slavery  work,  m  a  high  ofticial  capacity 
Xe  Island  of  <  uba.  In  l^io  he  was  appointed  H.  M  Special  Commissioner 
of  Inquiry    on  the  West   Coast   of   Africa   Settlements;   Colonial  Se^cvetaiy 
o    Western  Australia  in  18-17  :  Secretary  of  the  Loan  Fund  Board,  Dublin 
1850tols^.O.    He  was  the  author  of  the  Ilutoyy  oj  the  United  Irishmen  oj 
1708  in  siK  volumes  ;  Travels  hi  the  luist ;  Biofimphy  ot   Savonarola  ;  The 
Iitiinuitie^    of    Genius:     Histonj    of    the    Penal     Laws:     Phantastnmata, 
M^^^yiXBlessinyton;  hrines  a^uJ  SepuMnr.  of  '/'V>i   -;i  ^- 
World  ;  and  many  other  works.     In  18->S  Dr.  Madden  married  Harriet    the 
youngest,  and  t^4nty-  first  child  of  .lolm  Elmslie    Esq     ^^  S^JS^  If^?.^^^ 
Estate,  Jamaica,  and  of  London,  who  was  born  in  London,  1801,  and  died 
at  Booierstown,  near  Dublin,  February  7th,   188s      The  issue  of  the  mar- 
riage were     inter    aJiis,   first,   WOliam  Forde    Madden,   born    m  London 
1829,   who  after  passing  with  distinction  through  the  Folytecmc  School  of 
Engineering  in  Paris,    was  accidentally  drowned   m   the    Shannon    whilst 
enga-ed  in  the  Public  Works  for  the  relief  of  the  distress  m  Ireland,  March 
29th,  184S  ;  and  secondly,  Thomas  More  Madden,  (of  whom  hei-eafter, 

rBv  one  that  knew  her  worth,  Mrs.  Harriet  Madden  was  truthfully  thus  de- 
scribed in  an  obituarv  notice  published  at  the  time  of  her  deatli-;- We  have 
much  regret  in  recording  the  Leveianee  of  another  of  the  few  remaining  links 
between  tlie  present  and  the  past  by  the  death,  at  her  i^sidence,  .  \  ernoi 
Terrace,  Bootirstown,  near  Dublin,  on  Febrnary  7th  1888  ot  the  widow  ol 
the  late  Dr.  R.  R.  :\Iadden,  author  of  the  Historu  of  the  United  Irishmen, 
and  formerly  Colonial  Secretary  of  Western  Australia.  Those  who  have 
admired  the  late  Dr.  Madden's  writings  may  be  interested  to  l^"Ow  ho  n 
much  his  literarv  labours  were  lightened  and  aided  by  the  untiring  and  intelli- 
gent co-operation  of  the  esiimable  and  gifted  lady  whose  death  we  chronicle 
fo-day.  Nearly  every  page  of  the  more  than  forty  volumes  pubhshed  by  Dr^ 
11  R.  Madden  was  trluscribed  or  revised  by  the  ever  ready  aid  of  the  good 
w,fe,  who  survived  l,er  lamented  husband  but  two  years  aln.ost  to  a  day 
She  w.s  born  in  London  August  15th  1801,  being  the  youngest  daughter  o 
John  Elmslie,  Esq.  Her  father,  who  was  the  descendant  ot  an  ancient 
Scotch  family,  the  Elmslies  of  Old  Meldrum,  Aberdeensliii-e,  was  himself 

a  West  Indi'an  planter,  owning  Serge  I^^^l^^^^  f  T^'^ff '  IL  S'of 
He  was  married  to  a  Miss  Wallis,  who  died  mimediately  after  the  birth  of 
h-  r  21st  child,  and  whom  he  survived  until  ls22,  wlien  he  died  at  h,s  resi- 
dence, Berners-street,  London.  Six  years  subsequent  y  his  youngest  daughter 
Harriet  Elmslie.  was  married  at  Cheltenham  to  Dr.  R  L  Madden  ^^]omn 
1S33  she  accompanied  to  the  West  Indies,  where  he  lilled  an  nnporta.it  ohicc 


394  APPENDIX. 


in  connectiou  ^vith  the  emancipation  of  the  Negro  Slaves  in  that  Island. 
In  1837,  whilst  residing  in  Cuba,  Mrs.  Madden,  from  sincoie  conviction 
became  a  member  of  the  same  church  as  her  husband,  nnd  fhencpfni-th  was 
a  most  fervent  and  exemplary  follower  of  the  Catholic  faith,  by  the  teachings 
andpractices  of  which  the  mar)y  trials  and  bereavements  of  her  life  were 
consoled,  and  by  the  ministrations  and  prayers  of  which  her  last  moments 
were  blessed  and  fortified.  Of  that  marriage  there  were,  inter  aJiis,  tbree  sons, 
two  of  whom,  viz.,  William  Forde,  born  in  London  in  1829,  and  Tbomas 
More,  born  in  Cuba  in  1839,  attained  manhood.  Subsequently  Mrs.  IMaddeii, 
accompanied  her  husband  to  Portugal,  where  they  resided  three  years ; 
after  that  to  France,  where  she  remained  for  some  time  during  the  educa- 
tion of  their  eldest  son,  and  then  to  Western  Austraha,  where  Dr. 
Madden  held  the  office  of  Colonial  Secretary,  whence  on  the  death  of 
that  son  tliey  returned  to  Ireland,  where  they  remained  for  the  rest  of 
their  lives.  Possessed  of  intellectual  endowments  which  survived  unclouded 
to  the  last  moment  of  life,  fervent  pielj',  rare  self-abnegation  and  thought- 
ful kindness  of  character,  ever  considerate  for  the  happiness  of  others, 
and  charitable  to  the  weakness  and  faihngs  of  all  but  herself ;  her  whole 
life  was  marked  by  benevolence,  which  we  trust  has  now  met  with  its  reward 
in  that  blessed  immortality  for  which  she  had  long  prayed,  and  which 
should  induce  those  Avhom  to  the  utmost  of  her  power  she  had  striven  to 
benefit,  to  occasionally  re-echo  in  her  behalf  the  last  solemn  words  of  that 
funeral  service  repeated  on  the  loth  February  1888  over  her  grave  in  Donny- 
brook  churchyard. — llequiescat  in  Pace."'] 

133. — Thomas  More  Madden,  son  of  the  above  named  Eichard  Ptobert 
Madden,  born  at  Havana  in  Cuba,  is  a  Doctor  of  Medicine,  Member  of  the 
Pioyal  College  of  Physicians,  Ireland,  and  of  Surgeons,  England  ;  a  Fellow  of 
the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  Edinburgh  ;  author  of  A  Guide  to  the  Health 
Besorts  of  Europe  and  Africa ;  editor  of  llie  Dublin  Practice  of  Midivifery ;  On 
the  Cerebro-Nervous  Disorders  Peculiar  to  Women ;  Lectures  onChilcl  Culture, 
Moral,  Mental,  and  Physical,  and  several  other  works  on  Medical  and  other 
subjects ;  one  of  the  Medical  Staff  of  the  Mater  Misericordi;e  Hospital  and  Chil- 
dren's Hospital  in  Dublin.  In  1872  Dr.  More  Madden  was  "  Decore  Croix  de 
Bronze  Pour  Services  rendus  a  la  France  pendant  la  Guerre  de  1 870-7 1.'  He 
was  subsequently  accorded  the  gold  medal  and  Hon.  Fellowship  of  the  Associ- 
azione  dei  Benemerite  Italiani;  and  in  1890  he  received  the  degree  of  M.D. 
Honoris  Causa  from  the  Faculty  of  tbe  i'iedical  College  of  Texas — "  as  in  some 
part  a  recognition  of  your  services  as  a  practitioner,  your  valuable  and  distin- 
guished labours  in  the  fie  d  of  syn&cology,  and  your  eminent  position  in  the 
esteem  of  the  medical  profession  in  tliis  country  as  of  your  own."  Dr.  More 
Madden  is  also  Master  of  the  National  Lying-in  Hosj)ital,  Dublin  ;  Ex- 
President  of  the  Obstetric  Sections  of  the  British  Medical  Association  and 
of  tbe  Royal  Academy  of  Medicine  in  Ireland ;  Formerly  Vice-President, 
British  Gynaecological  Society  ;  Hon.  Member  Texas  State  Medical  Society  ; 
and  Corresponding  Member  of  the  Gyncecological  Society  of  Boston,  &c. 
He  married  in  P^OS  Mary  Josephine,  eldest  daughter  of  Thomas  M'Donnell 
Caffrey,  Esq.,  of  Crosthwaite  Park,  Kingstown,  and  has  had,  first,  Richard 
Robert  (of  whom  presently);  secondly,  Thomas  M'Doimel,  now  (1891) 
Lieutenant  7th  Brigade,  North  Irish  Division,  Royal  Artillery  ;  thirdly, 
William  Forde,  died  1871  ;  besides  two  daughters,  namely,  Mar}'-  Josephine, 
educated  at  Newhall  Convent,  Essex,  and  at  Jette  St.  Pierre,  Brussels; 
and  Brigid  Gertrude  Harriet  (Beda),  a  child  of  great  promise  and  endow- 
ments, '•  who  was  early  called  to  God,"  born  I7th  July  1875,  died  ItJth  June 
1882,  at  JMerrion-square,  DubHn. 

133.  Richard  Robert  Madden,  Junior,  born  1869,  educated  at  Downside 
College,  near  Bath,  and  who  having  recently  passed  the  third  Professional 
Examination  of  the  Royal  Colleges  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  Ireland, 
is  now,  I8yi,  Resident,  Mater  Misericordia'  Hospital,.  Dublin. 


295 

AIM'ENDIX.  


THF   ABBIV  OF    MFELIGK,  ITS   FOUNDEKS   (THE   O'MADDEXS) 
ASD  THEIE  DESCENDANTS. 

,f  tke  Four  Masters  as  ;'  a  man  of  migMy  aim  ^d   im  ^^^^^^^^^   .^ 

latter  ^orklio^s'ever    this  event    s  f^^V^f  J^^^^^  "the 

the  chieftaincy,  Eoghan  0  ^ia<iaeu  m  ^  ■;'^^™  -^  ^^^  diocese  of  Clon- 
Monastery  of  Meelick  on  the  banks  ol  |l;«i:\\^7^^^^  selected  a  burial- 

p.  304),  it  appears  that  ^^  "^^j^f^^^^^^^^^^  Temporalis    0^ Madden 

to  another  order,  viz.,  the  I^""^l°}^f?'^, ,,,,.%;  ',..-,  Ordini  Frccdicatorum 
Baronm  UUns  Lon<,ofordenem>s  >»;&'^'-^^  '.  "  '^  ^T^  ^  p  294,  makes  men- 
donavit,etc-     Archdale  in  his  il/o"«.  .co »^  H^^^^  ^    ^^^^ 

tion   of  "the   ^^elightful   situaion^    o^^  M^^^^^^^ 
nnlesfromEyrecourt    andof  theveueia^e^^^^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^.^^ 

Shanuou  iu  the  barouy  o    I^«"f J"'^  ;  "  f  \'',S7of  the  O'^ 

Visited  these  ruins  m    s32.   ^?^  ,^  f^^P^^'^^J^^^^  ,„  Comitatu  Galvenci<e,  pro 

^^  Monasterium  de  Milich.  ^''^^''V_;.V  ^/^V  ,  /   n*^/a»/.si.s-  multo  sentiunt  circa 
ipsa  observantia/undatores  <l^^^^ll^'^;^^^^  ^MMu;  suppressura  et  fere- 
ctnnum  1300.     Fundatorem   ^^'^^'J^'^^^^^ 
omninodc'strnctumesttemiHn-^^^^^^^  J^      ^^g^   ^^.^^^t  of 

history  of  the  Cathohc  '"^"J*^";  .I''='rfi^;°F';°„=:iS  of  The 

(I'Madden's  Abbey  of  MeelicK  ^'"o-  ""      ,         .        j  tlieir  once  spleudid 
euUy  aud   danger  "Sam  reasBem bled  ^ J^^^, '  ^^j-J^  ,.,ti,,,  „j  Ivrfus 

Si;  H'rgu'MT.st.Tnc:'..or:e,:braied  bA'ather 0 a.e«  O'Madden. 


^nn  APPENDIX. 


O.S.F.  Tliencefortli  tliioiigliout  all  the  long  period  of  the  civil  wars,  and 
the  subsequent  regime  of  the  penal  lavvS  iu  Ireland,  the  sacred  ministra- 
tions of  religion  were  carried  on  therein  down  to  a  recent  date,  by  the 
devoted  members  of  the  Older  of  St.  Francis,  whose  predecfc^iio.d  had  been 
expelled  by  the  soldiery  of   l^lizabetli  from  this  ancient  shrine. 

In  Secretary  Walsinghaiii's  original  draft  of  "  The  Orders  to  be  observed 
by  Sir  Nicholas  Ealby,  Kuiglit,  for  the  better  government  of  the  Province  of 
Oonnaught,  given  at  Westmiu-ter  the  last  of  March,  1579,  in  the  twenty-first 
.vear  of  our  reign  {  "  and  which  is  still  preserved  in  the  Cotton  Librar}', 
British  Museum,  Titus  B.  AIL.,  No.  53,  p.  226),"  is  the  following  clause, 
specially  aimed  at  the  remaining  abbeys,  such  as  Meelick,  with  which  that 
province  was  still  endowed.  "B  .  .  .  And  whereas  we  understand  that 
divers  houses  freight  with  Friars,  remain  in  some  parts  of  that  Province 
uusuppressed  ;  our  pleasure  is  that  you  cause  them  to  abandon  those  places, 
and  to  compell  them  chaunge  their  cotes,  and  to  live  according  to  ourlawes  : 
which  howses  may  be  apt  places  for  habitacon  of  such  Englishmen  as  we 
meane  shall  have  estates  in  our  lands  in  those  places."' 

How  thoroughly  the  spirit  of  these  instructions  was  carried  out  by  the 
ElizaJ:ethan  governors  of  Ireland  may  be  seen  from  the  evidence  of  that 
most  anti-celtic  and  anti-catholic  of  modern  historians,  IVlr.  Fronde,  who 
even  expresses  some  indignation  witli  his  heroine,  Queen  Elizabeth,  for  not 
eifeoting  a  more  complete  extirpation  of  the  ancient  creed  than  she  succeeded 
in  doing  at  this  time;  when,  as  he  boasts,  "The  church  property  of  the 
Pale,  tlie  lands  of  the  abbeys  which  were  again  suppressed,  the  estates 
attached  to  the  Bishops  sees,  had,  all  of  them,  lapsed  to  the  Crown  ;  "  and 
when,  as  he  continues,  "Irrii-ated  with  the  expenses  of  the  government,  she 
(Elizabeth)  farmed  the  Church  lands,  farmed  even  the  benefices  themselves, 
S(iueezing  out  of  them  some  miserable  driblet  of  revenue,  and  gradually  as 
the  English  power  extended,  apphed  the  same  method  to  the  other  provinces, 
the  priests  fled  from  the  churches  to  the  hillsides,  or  to  the  chieftains' 
castles,  and  no  ministers  took  their  places  ;  roofs  and  \\indows  fell  in,  doors 
were  broken  from  the  hinges,  till  at  last  there  was  neither  church  nor  chapel 
through  which  rain  and  wind  had  not  free  sweep." — Fronde,  The  English  in 
Ireland,  vol.  i.,  p    140. 

'•  About  two  miles  from  Eyrecourt  and  half  that  disiance  from  the  old 
strongliold  of  the  OIMadden's,  Lismore  Castle,"  says  Ih-.  R.  E.  Madden, 
"  stands  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  Abbey  of  Meelick.  This  venerable  sanctu- 
ary is  also  within  sight  of  the  O'Madden's  celebrated  Castle  of  Clogher  or 
Lusmagh,  taken  by  storm,  and  tb.e  Irish  garrison  put  to  the  sword  by  the 
Lord  Deputy,  Sir  William  Ilussell,  in  15!)5,  the  remains  of  which  are 
still  (1854)  habitable,  and  inhabited  by  an  agent  of  Garrett  Moore,  I'^.sq., 
the  present  proprietor."  Tlie  account  of  the  scene  of  carnage  and  pillage 
that  vv'as  enacted  on  the  11th  March  1595,  under  the  walls  of  MeeHck  Abbey 
in  the  stoimiug  of  O'Madden's  adjacent  castle,  bv  the  Ijord  Deputy,  Sir 
"WilHam  liussell,  as  related  in  the  latters report,  the  MS.  of  which  is  preserved 
in  the  Library  of  the  British  Museum,  ha>  been  cited  in  the  preceding 
chapter. 

Meelick  is  yearly  surrounded  by  inundations  of  the  Shannon  during  the 
winter  months ;  the  lands  in  the  vicinity  are  particularly  rich  and  fertile, 
and  most  of  these  were  formerly  held  by  the  Monks  of  Meelick.  The 
latter  when  described  by  I'etrie  i]i  1832-33,  had  diminished  to  two 
brethren,  who  he  says  "inhabit  a  small  dwelling-house  annexed  to  the 
old  abbey,  adjoining  to  v.diich  they  have  a  chapel  where  they  perform  ser- 
vice. They  have  a  few  acres  of  land  on  lease  from  the  Marquis  of  Clan- 
ricarde,  who  is  now  lord  of  the  soil,  the  Abbey  having  been,  at  its  suppres- 
sion, granted  to  Sir  John  King,  who  assigned  it  to  the  Earl  of  Clanricarde." 
Twenty  years  subsequently  the  final  abandonment  of  this  ancient   shrine 


APPENDIX.  297 


was  recorded  b\  the  late  Dr.  11.  li.  Madden:  "Aajoiuing  the  ruined  Abbey 
is  the  Franciscan  Convent,  which  never  ceased  sincrf  the  Abbey  was  erected 
to  be  tenanted  by  Franciscans,  except  at  brief  intervals  during  the  wars  of 
Elizabeth  and  Cromwell  until  the  past  couple  of  years,  when  one  of  the 
community,  then  reduced  to  two  members,  having  died,  the  survivor,  Mr. 
Fannin  found  it  impossible  any  longer  to  procure  the  means  of  living  there, 
as  the  neighbouring  country  had  been  so  depopulated  and  impoverished.  U 
was  to  me  a  very  melancholy  sight  to  see  this  old  time-honoured  establisli- 
meut  (still  habitable  and  apparently  in  good  repair)  deserted.  The  windows 
closed  up  and  the  doors  shut  for  the  first  time  certainly  for  upwards  of  two 
hundred  years.  The  Abbey  was  founded  by  the  O'Madden's,  but  on  the  ruiu 
of  a  more  ancient  structure." — E.  l\.  M. 

Long  previously  to  the  foundation  of  the  Abbey  of  Meelick,  a  church 
existed  there.  In  the  Munater  Anitah  we  read  that  "in  the  year  120-) 
William  de  Burgo  marched  at  the  head  of  a  great  army  into  Connaught, 
and  so  to  Meelick.  and  there  did  profanely  convert  the  church  into  a  stable, 
round  which  he  erected  a  castle  of  a  circular  form,  wherein  he  was  wont  to 
eat  flesh  meat  during  the  whole  of  Lent."  There  is  no  more  ancient  inscrip- 
tion now  remaining  amongst  tbe  monuments  of  Meelick  than  164:].  The 
once  ricli  library  of  the  Abbey  when  described  by  Petrie  in  iMiJ',;,  was  then 
reduced  to  ''  a  few  mutilated  volumes  of  school  divinity,  perishing  through 
damp  and  neglect."  An  anonymous  correspondent  of  the  journal  before 
cited,  gives  the  following  additional  particulars  relative  to  the  condition  of 
these  ruins  at  that  period:  "At  present  the  roofless  walls  of  this  once 
sumptuous  building  are  mouldering  into  decay  or  falling  a  prey  to  the  ruth- 
less hands  of  modern  vandals.  The  beautiful  pillars  that  separated  and 
supported  the  arches  on  tlie  north  side,  have  been  torn  away  to  supply 
headstones  for  the  humble  occupants  of  the  neighbouring  narrow  ceils."  The 
river  Shannon  is  here  romantically  picturesque,  being  broken  with  rapid 
falls.  On  one  side  was  a  martello  tower,  which  at  the  time  of  Petrie's 
account,  was  still  occupied  by  military  and  surmounted  by  three  twenty- 
four  pounders,  and  on  the  opposite  side  is  a  dismantled  battery  (evidently 
belonging  to  O'Madden's  ancient  castle),  and  crowned  by  the  ruined  monas- 
tery before  described.  "  Two  and  twenty  years  had  elapsed,"  says  Dr.  II. 
ji.  M.,  "  since  the  preceding  account  was  written  when  I  visited  Meelick  in 
the  month  of  February  1804.  The  monastery  had  ceased  to  be  tenanted, 
and  of  the  remains  of  the  old  library,  nothing  was  left  save  some  odd  and 
mutilated  volumes  that  had  not  been  thought  worth  the  trouble  of  removal  by 
the  last  of  the  Franciscan  Fathers  of  the  ruined  Abbey.  In  the  walls  of  the 
ancient  church  there  are  s-iveral  monuments  of  the  O'Madden's  ;  of  these 
tombstones  however,  there  are  none  now  remaining  of  an  earlier  date 
than  1048." 

[The  armorial  bearings  of  the  founders  of  Meelick,  as  sculptured  iu  the 
Abbey,  viz.,  a  falcon  seizing  a  mallard  :  motto,  Fide  et  Fortitiulhic,  uro 
identical  with  those  described  by  Molyneux  in  1554,  and  to  the  present  tina^ 
borne  by  the  family  of  the  late  Dr.  K.  11.  Madden,  whose  father,  Edward 
Madden,  was  grandson  of  Daniel  Madden,  who  circa  1G87  was,  according  to 
Farrell  {Lina  Aiitiqua),  "the  head  of  the  O'Madden's,"  wliich,  says 
<J'Donovan  [Trihcx  uf  Jlij-Mainj,  p.  101),  "  undoubtedly  he  was." — "The 
above  mentioned  Dr.  Madden,  the  writer,"  says  Sir  I'rede rick  Madden,  "  be^rs 
the  usual  coat,  with  the  chief  and  cross,  and  the  falcon  and  coronet  on  the 
crest."] 

Amongst  the  memorials  of  the  descendants  of  the  founder  of  this  Abbey  iu 
the  crypt  of  the  convent,  is  ;«  hexagonal  stone  (once  cruciform),  bearing  the 
following  inscription :  "  1045,  Orate  pro  Anima  preclari  Domini  Malachy 
O'Madden  et  Margarieta  Cromptori,  conjugibus  qui  me  erexerunt."  One  of 
the  best  preserved  of  these  mural  slabs  is  one  existing  in  the  west  wall  of 


298  APPENDIX. 


the  southern  transept.  Me  vere  erexerunt  pro  se  et posteiis siih  Hugo  Cuolf 
lachan  et  Isabella  Madden  uxor  ejus,  die  XX.  Mensis,  Mali,  1673.  Ou 
another  slab  is  the  following  inscription:  Pro  fainilia  Maddena,  Fergus 
Madden  me  erigi  de  eorijuge  deleeta  (Jatherina  Madden  alias  Donnellan  ac 
posteris  sjiis,  iieenon  in  memoriam  sepultura  majoreni  erigi  fecit,  4  Janii, 
1671.  At  the  opposite  end  of  the  Abbey  on  the  right  hand  side  is  the  fol- 
lowing: mnral  inscription  :  ••  Pray  for  the  soul  of  Loughliu  Madden  and  his 
wife  Ellen  Kelly,  and  of  B)yan  Madden  and  his  wife  Kose  Kelly  of  Ballina- 
scorthy,  who  raised  this  raonument  in  remembrance  of  them,  6th  JMarch 
1686."  The  most  perfectly  preserved  of  the  tombstones  of  the  O'Madden's 
is  one  of  a  later  date,  and  exhibits  the  family  coat  of  arms,  as  at  present 
borne,  a  falcon  argent,  preying  on  a  mallard,  the  motto  effaced.  The 
following  is  the  inscription:  "Here  lyes  the  body  of  Ambrose  Madden  of 
Derryhorau,  Esq.,  who  died  the  4th  February  1754,  aged  71  years  :  as  also 
the  bodies  of  his  beloved  children,  Patrick  Madden,  who  died  27th  August 
1725;  Anne  Madden,  who  died  15th  October  17'26;  and  John  Madden,  who 
died  2!)th  November  1728,  all  in  the  flower  and  bloom  of  their  youth,  much 
lamented,  God  gives  them  eternal  bliss  and  happiness  and  a  glorious 
resurrection.     Amen."* 

In  connexion  with  the  history  of  the  sept  of  Silauchia,  we  have  already 
referred  to  the  unequal  contest  wliicb,  under  the  walls  of  Meelick  Abbey, 
was  waged  between  the  chiefs  of  the  O'Madden  territory,  who  at  Cloghau 
Castle  in  1595  sacrificed  their  lives  and  fortunes  in  the  vain  attempt  to  op- 
pose by  the  rude  weapons,  and  wild  heroism  of  their  followers,  the  well 
armed  and  disciplined  forces  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  imder  the  command  of 
the  veteran  Lord  Deputy  Sir  William  Russell.  "  These  events  of  1595  led, 
says  Dalton  {King  James  Army  List),  to  deaths  and  the  conliscations  of  many 
of  the  O'Madden  sept.  In  1606  John  King  of  Dublin  had  a  grant  of  the  estates 
of  various  O'JNIaddens,  of  the  county  G^ilway  and  the  King's  County,  slain  in 
rebellion,  as  had  also  >Sir  Henry  Davis,  the  Attorney-General  of  the  day,  of 
what  was  described  as  "the  estate  of  Brasil  O'Madden,  of  the  county  of  Clare, 
slain  in  rebellion."  In  the  same  year,  however,  Ambrose  O'Madden  had 
"  livery  of  certain  estates  in  the  old  Barony  of  Longford  as  son  of  said 
Donald  O'Madden."  In  1613  Donald  O'Madden,  then  the  "  Captain  of  his 
Nation,"  settled  on  trustees,  his  manor  and  castle  of  Longford,  and  all  his 
other  estates  in  that  part  of  Galwiiy,  to  hold  to  the  use  of  Ambrose  O'Madden, 
his  son  and  heir  intail,  with  remainder  to  his  other  sons  Malachy  and  Don- 
ald ;  and  the  heirs  male  of  Ambrose  O'Madden  in  fee. 

The  confiscations  of  tlie  O'Madden  territory  commenced  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  were  repeated  in  the  plantations  of  her  successors  James  1.  and 
Charles  1.  These  confiscations  were  carried  out  not  merely  as  a  spoliation  of 
the  Irish  chieftains,  but  even  in  the  partial  restoration  of  some  fragments  of 
their  possessions,  as  in  the  instance  of  Donald  O'Madden,  the  last  heredi- 
tary native  ruler  of  Silanchia  or  Siol  Anmchadha,  whose  son  Ambrose  was  de- 
])rived  of  his  ancestral  authority,  and  distinctive  title  as  "  The  O'Madden," 
being  thenceforward  permitted  merely  to  retain  a  small  portion  of  his  fore- 
fathers lands,  on  the  English  tenure,  by  Knights  service  ;  were  part  of  a 
settled  policy  the  object  of  which  was,  says  Prendergast,  "  to  break  up  the 
clan  system,  and  to  destroy  the  power  of  the  chiefs."  This  once  accom- 
plished, the  more  complete  and  ruthless  spoliation  of  the  O'Maddens  and 
other  Celtic  tribes  of  Hy-Many,  which   followed    during  the  early   years  of 

*  There  is  a  tombhtoiic;  here  (ilso  to  the  lueiudvy  of  Francis  IMiuMeii  -vvho  died  in  174;>.  In 
the  aisle  is  a  horizontal  monument  to  the  memory  of  Patrick  Burlje  and  Dorothy  INliiddrn, 
his  ■wife,  who  died  in  1745  ;  and  in  the  same  ]ilace  a  modern  tombstone  in  memory  of  John 
Madden,  who  died.  1812;  and  in  the  churchyard  adjoining,  there  are  a  great  number  of 
tombstones  dating  from  the  commencemout  of  the  century,  with  inscriptious  commemorative 
vt  jjcrsous  of  the  name  of  Madden. 


APPENDIX.  299 


the  subsequent  reign  of  Cliaiies  I.  and  during  tli^.  ('romwellian  usurpation, 
became  au  easy  exempliticatiou  of  the  successful  robber's  favourite  adage. — 
]7e  Victis. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  follow  the  iiarrative  of  the  repeated  confiscations 
by  which  the  chieftains  of  Silauchia  (Siol  Anmchadha)  and  their  desceud- 
ents  were  thus  in  successive  reigns  despoiled  of  their  ancestral  posses'^ions, 
without  some  reference  to  the  history'  of  the  times  and  of  the  circumstances 
which  led  to  this  result.  Nor  for  that  purpose  are  there  any  better  materials 
available  than  may  be  found  in  Dr.  Madden's  Historical  IiitrodHction  to  his 
Lives  and  Times  of  the  United  Irishmen,  of  a  small  portion  of  which  the 
subsequent  passages  are  a  very  hrief  summary: — 

The  first  four  centuries  after  Strongbow's  invasion  had  passed  away  with- 
out the  conquest  of  Ireland  being  completed.  The  v\'ars  with  France  and 
Scotland,  the  insurrections  of  the  Barons,  and  the  wars  of  the  Roses,  pr.-- 
vented  the  English  monarchs  from  establishing  even  a  nominal  supremacy 
over  the  entire  Island.  Instead  of  the  Irish  princes  becoming  feudal  vassals, 
the  Anglo-Norman  J^arons  who  obtained  fiefs  in  Ireland  adopted  the  usages 
of  the  native  chieftains.  The  attention  of  Henry  VII.  was  attracted  to  this 
state  of  things  by  the  adherence  of  the  Anglo-Norman  Lords,  and  the  Irish 
princes,  v.ith  whom  they  had  formed  au  alliance  to  the  cause  of  the  ITan- 
tagenets  ;  and  their  insuperable  reluctance  to  any  allegiance  to  the  Tudors. 
l''rom  that  time  it  became  the  fixed  policy  of  the  Crown  to  break  down  tlie 
power  of  the  Anglo-Irish  aristocracy,  anel  to  destroy  the  independence  of 
tlie  native  chieftains  by  large  grants  of  their  lands  to  EngUsh  colonists  and 
adventurers,  who  by  the  former  Lords  of  the  soil  were  looked  upon  as  intru- 
ders, whilst  the  ruling  powers  regarded  them  with  peculiar  favour,  as  being 
most  likely  to  establish  and  promote  an  "English  interest  in  Ireland.'  This 
political  motive  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  religious  movement  which 
took  place  about  the  same  time.  It  was  as  much  the  object  of  Queen  Mary 
as  it  was  that  of  Elizabeth  to  give  Irisli  lands  to  Eugli'-h  settlers,  in  (n'der 
to  obtain  a  hold  over  Ireland.  Thus  it  was  under  Mary  that  the  lands  ol* 
Leix  and  Oft'ally  were  forfeited,  and  the  Lord  Deputy  permitted  to  grant 
leases  of  them  at  such  rents  as  he  might  deem  expedient.  In  the  midst  of 
this  political  convulsion,  au  attempt  was  made  to  force  the  Irish  to  adopt 
the  principles  of  the  Reformation,  which  had  been  jtist  established  in  Eng- 
land. The  only  reason  propos-  d  to  them  for  a  change  of  creed  was  the 
Lloyal  Authority  ;  and  they  were  already  engaged  in  a  struggle  against  that 
authority  to  prevent  their  lands  being  parcelled  out  to  stt  angers.  Under  such 
circumstances,  the  futility  of  thus  perforce  converting  the  natives  to  the  new 
creed  soon  became  evident,  and  it  was  at  last  abandoned  for  the  apparently 
more  feasible  plan  of  colonizing  Ireland  with  Protestants  from  England.  'J'he 
calamitous  wars  of  Elizabeth  were  waged  by  the  Irish  and  the  descendenis  of 
the  Anglo-Norman  settlers  in  Ireland,  equally  in  defence  of  their  land  and  of 
their  creed.  After  ten  years  of  incessant  warfare,  an  expenditure  of  money 
that  drained  the  English  exchequer,  and  of  life  that  nearly  depo))ulnteil 
Ireland,  the  entire  Island  was  subdued  by  the  arms  of  Elizabeth,  but  the 
animosity  of  the  hostile  parties  was  not  abated.  They  had  merely  dropped 
their  weapons  from  sheer  exhaustion.  Colonies  bad  been  planted  in  the  con- 
quered provinces,  but  the  settlers  (the  great  majority  of  whom  exhibited  those 
strongly  marked  Calvanistic  tendencies,  which  to  the  present  day  distinguish 
the  Irish  from  the  English  Protestant  Church),  were  merely  garrisons  in  a 
hostile  country,  and  continued  there  as  aliens  in  religion,  language,  and 
blood,  to  the  people  by  v.hnm  they  were  surrounded  {Vide  Historical 
Introduction  to  Dr.  Madden\>  United,  Irishmen,  Vol.  I.  p.) 

The  manner  in  which  the  conquered  inhabitants  of  Hy-Many  were  dealt 
with  by  their  English  victors  in  those  days  of  the  so-called  "  Good  Queen 
Bess"  may  be  gathered  even  from  the  parti-coloured  pages  of  Mr.  i'routlc'ti 


300  APPENDIX. 


History  of  the  English  in  Irelandy  in  whioh  we  are  told  that  "  Elizabeth's 
soldiers,  with  their  pay  for  ever  in  arrears,  lived  almost  universally  on  plun- 
der. Placed  in  the  country  to  repress  banditti,  they  were  little  better  than 
bandits  themselves.  They  came  at  last  to  regard  the  Irish  peasantry  as  .m- 
possessed  of  the  common  rights  of  human  beings,  and  shot  and  strangled 
them  lil^e  foxes  and  jackals.  More  than  once  in  the  repoits  of  officers  em- 
ployed in  these  services  we  meet  the  sickening  details  ot  their  performances, 
related  with  a  calmness  more  frightful  than  the  atrocities  themselves. 
Young  English  gentlemen  describing  expeditions  into  the  mountains  to 
have  some  killing  ;  as  if  a  forest  was  being  driven  for  a  battue."  {FrondelH 
The  Encjlish  in  Ireland,  Vol.  I.  p.  51). 

In  the  succeeding  reign  of  James  the  1st.,  the  cimfiscations  in  Ireland  were 
renewed,  on  a  still  larger  f^cale,  the  revolt  of  the  Earls  of  T^-rconnell  and 
Tyrone,  and  O'Doherty,  affording  a  pretext  for  confiscating  the  six  northern 
counties,  over  which  the  sovereignty  of  these  chieftains  extended.  Tlie 
"  Plantation  of  Ulster,'  and  the  share  granted  to  tlie  City  of  London  Corpora- 
tion in  the  plunder,  led  directly  to  a  com})lete  change  in  the  t^iiiure  of  land 
in  Ireland ;  which  ttnder  the  ancient  Irish  system,  consisted  in  the  co-partner- 
ship of  the  chieftain  with  all  the  members  of  his  sept,  and  by  the  abolition  of 
Avhich,  under  the  ''Commissions"  issued  by  James  1st,  tlie  latter  were  redm-ed 
from  small  proprietors  tributary  to  the  Chief,  into  the  position  of  tenants 
at  will,  under  the  new  settlers  then  introduced  into  Irdand.  To  that 
needy  monarch  these  "Irish  foifcitttres  "  became  such  a  ready  source  of 
income,  that  by  the  end  of  his  reign,  there  remaint^d  scarcely  a  landed 
proprietor  of  the  old  race  in  Ireland  whose  estates  were  not  placed  at  the 

mercy  of  the  crown In  the  earlier  years  of  his  successor,  Charles 

I.  under  the  viceroyalty  of  Wentwortli,  afterwards  Earl  of  Stafford,  a 
further  project  of  confiscation  of  nearly  the  entire  province  of  Connaught, 
especially  affecting  the  O'iMaddens  territory  of  Silanchia,  or  Siol  Anmachada, 
under  the  plea  of  defective  title  of  the  Lords  of  the  soil,  was  commenced  atjd 
would  have  been  soon  completed,  bad  not  the  trottbles  in  England  and  the 
insurrection  in  Scotland  led  to  Lord  Stafford's  recall,  and  the  adaptation  of  a 
policy  of  conciliation  to  the  Irish  gentry,  (tn  whom,  "Graces,"  or  indulgences 
in  regard  to  religion  and  title  to  land  were  tlien  conferred.  After  the  revo- 
lution these  promises  were  disregarded  by  the  Pimtan  Parliament,  whose 
war  of  extermination  against  the  Irish  (.'atholic  landed  pi  oprietors  and  chief- 
tains was  followed  bv  the  suh-eqiunt  uiaisiug  of  the  latter,  and  the 
saguinary  civil  war,  which  ended  in  the  total  defeat  of  the  Royalists  and 
confederated  Irish,  by  Cromwell,  at  Drogheda,  Wexford,  and  other  places, 
where  were  enacted  indescribably  dreadful  scenes  of  massacre  of  the  ill-fated 
Irish, — followed  by  the  wholesale  expulsion — '•  to  Hell  or  Connaught  "  of 
the  Catholic  Gentry  of  Leiuster  and  Munster. 

By  the  "Acts  of  Settlement  and  Ivxplanation"  almost  the  entire  landed 
property  of  the  country  was  transferred  from  its  righful  owners  to  the 
Cromwellian  settlers.  On  the  accession  of  Jamts  11.,  the  liopes  of  the 
Irish  were  aroused  once  more,  bttt  were  quickly  bli^ihted  by  the  flight  of 
the  King,  after  the  battles  of  the  Hoyne  and  Aughrim,  and  the  seige  of 
Limerick,  where  the  valour  of  tlie  Irish  had  been  well  proved.  The  reign 
of  William  was  inaugurated  by  a  fresh  act  of  attainder  and  the  Penal  I>aws. 
by  which  the  almost  complete  extermination  of  the  ancient  race  cf  landed 
])roprietors  in  Ireland  was  accomplislied During  the  Common- 
wealth, as  well  as  at  an  earlier  period,  the  O'Madden  territory  was 
repeatedly  plundered,  these  confiscations  being  most  extensively  carried 
out  during  the  l^lautations  under  the  Commonwealth.  Thus,  in  February 
1656  we  find  in  the — "Proposals  for  assyning  certaine  Baronies  in  Con- 
naught and  Clare,  to  certaine  cotmtries  in  other  provinces" — amongst 
the  lauds  assigned  by  the  Cromwellian  Commissioners,  to  the  inhabitants  o  f 
^N  aterford,  etc.,  etc.,  "  the  half  Barony  of  Longford  (or  Silanchia),  except 


APPENDIX. 


301 


what  is  in  the  byre  (or  portion  reserved  for  military  occupation)  in  the 
(•ounty  of  Galway."  This  latter  robbery  does  not  appear  to  liave  been  quietly 
acquiesced  in  by  the  dispossessed  old  proprietors  of  Silanchia.  Four 
years  after  the  confiscations  just  referred  to,  we  find  in  the  records  of  the 
Irish  Parliament  tlmt,  in  l(il6,  John  Eyre  a  member  of  P^iriiament, 
complained  to  the  HuU'^e  against  Fergus  Mnddeii,  whejeby  his  ser- 
vants, and  Laughliii  Keagh  Madden  and  Rory  Madden,  with  others,  came 
to  the  harus  and  haggard  on  the  lands  of  Ballyhugh,  where  the  petitioners', 
servants  were  threshing  his  corn,  and  turned  them  out,  and  took  possession, 
and  he  also  complained  of  others  who  had  seized  his  cattle  on  the  lands  of 
[villa,  and  of  Killershave,  in  the  iiarony  of  Longford,  and  still  detained  same." 
•  •  •  The  Sheriff  of  (lalway  was  thereupon  "ordt-red  to  quit  Eyre's  posses- 
sions, and  the  offend^-rs  were  summoned  to  attend  the  House."  However, 
ill  l{)77,  this  Fergus  Madden  had  a  confirmatory  grant  of  1783  acres  in  the 
itforesaid  Barony  of  L  mgford,  "the  ancient  inheritance  of  his  family." — 
:is  had  also  .Toiin  Madden,  great  grandson  of  Daniel  O' Madden,  of  44s  acres, 
in  the  same  district,  whiln,  J )r.  Richard  Madden  possessed  patent  for  about 
•JOO  acres  in  Clare  and  May(j.  The  latter  was  probably  the  Dr.  llichard 
Madden  of  Waterford,  who  twenty-tJn-ee  years  previously,  presumaldy  on 
the  ground  of  his  professional  services,  was  specially  exempted  I'rom  the 
(Jromwellian  tran -plantation, — Applications  were  frequently  made  to  Crom- 
well, in  favoiu-  of  some  persons,  who  were  founii  particularly  useful.  Thus 
on  the  v>()tM  of  March  16o4,  on  the  certificate  of  Colonel  W.  Leigh,  an>l 
other  officers,  within  the  precincts  of  Waterford,  Dr.  Richard  Mad<len  was 
dispensed  with  from  transplantation  into  (jrmnanght— but  as  to  his  desire 
of  residing  in  Waterford.  it  was  referred  to  Cohniei  liawrence,  the  governor 
there,  to  decide,  and  if  he  consideresl  it  fit,  the  re[uest  should  then  be 
granted  " 

In  the  subsequent  struggles  between  the  contending  claimants  to  the  British 
Throne,  during  the  Jacobite  wars,  the  0' Maddens  are  frequently  mentioned 
amongst  the  adherents  of  the  Stuart  cause,  in  whose  misfortunes  and  exile 
they  sharnd.  Thus  amongst  those  enuuier;ited  in  the  "'List  of  the  men  of 
note,  that  came  with  King  James  out  of  l-i-ance,  or  that  followed  him  after, 
as  fast  as  could  he  collected  "—  (London  1091  , — is  included  amongst  others 
of  the  Silanchia  Sept,  the  flev.  John  Madden,  whilst  in  King  James's  Irish 
Army  List,  (1689)  we  find  no  small  space  occupied  bj'  the  O'Madden  family. 
In  the  Earl  of  Clanrioarde's  regiment  of  infantry,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Edw. 
;\radden  of  the  Hy  many  Sept,  was  second  in  command.  This  Colonel  Edward 
Madden  was  taken  prisonei'  at  tlie  battle  of  Aughrim,  but  having  afterwards 
regained  his  liberty,   hastened   to   I'rance,  where  lie  was  commissioned  as 

major  in  the  Brigade  of  Fitzjaraes,  the  Grand  Prior Two  of  the 

name,  adds  Dalton  (op.  cit.  p.  14:5)  were  attainted  in  1091.  In  the  Earl  of 
Clanricarde's  regiment,  there  was  Michael  Madden  an  ensign,  John  Madden, 
lieutenant  in  the  Earl  of  Tyrone's  Hegiment,  and  another  Madden  in 
Colonel  Owen  M'Carthy's  regiment — ,lolm  Madden,  an  ensign  in  Lord 
Boffin's  Regiment,  who  in  l(i91  was  indited  as  of  Longford,  county  of 
Galway,  "and  was,"  adds  Dalton,  "ancestor  of  the  present  Dr.  Richard  Robert 
.Madden,  so  well  known  and  respected  in  various  fields  of  literature!.''* 

At  the  same  period  we  find  another  of  this  family,  viz.,  Hugh  Madden,  a 
Captain  in  Colonel  O'Hugh's  regiment  and,  .John  Madden,  lieutenant  in  same 
regiment;    wbile   in  the  King's  Own  Infantry  regiment  there  was  another 

lieutenant  Madden Their  adherence  to  the  losing  side   was  avenged 

during  the  victorious  Dutchman's  reign,  and  in  the  Williamite  confiscations, 
the  territory  of  the  OMaddens  was  again  despoiled,  and  the  members  of  this 

*  "  Illustrations,  Historical  andGpoprra)ihic.fil,  of  King  James'?  ArmA-  List  (IfiSf)!,"'  hv  .Tolm 
Dalton,  2nd  odition  vol,  2..  p.  r,25. 


803  APPENDIX. 


aucieut  house  driven  from  their  ancestral  possessions,  were,  perforce,  like 
Dr.  R.  R.  ^[ad'lon's  j^naiulfatlier — Jolui  Brasil  -Madden,  who,  says  O'Donovau, 
"  was  undoubtedly  the  head  of  the  family  '' — fain  to  earn  their  livelih;»od  in 
such  positions  or  occupations  as  were  then  permitted,  to  persecuted 
Catholic  victims,  of  penal  law  oppression  in  Ireland,  whilst  others  more 
adventurously  sought  their  furtuiie  in  the  congenial  profession  of  arms, 
in  one  or  other  of  those  Irish  regiments,  at  that  time  so  largely  employed 
in  the  Austrian,  Spanish,  and  French  services.  During  the  earlier  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  vast  number  of  these  Irish  exiles  served  in  the 
Spanish  army,  in  which  there  were  no  less  than  seven  regiments  recruited 
from  Ireland,  and  in  these  were  included  a  considerable  number  of  the 
O'Madden  name "  Among  the  officers  who  then  distinguished  them- 
selves in  the  Ilegimeut  de  lufanterie  de  Iilanda,  which  was  raised  in  1702,  we 
find  the  name  of  Don  Patricio  O'Madden.  In  the  following  year,  1703,  in 
the  list  of  Irish  officers  in  the  French  service,  we  discover  several  of  the 
exiled  sept  of  Silanchia,  amongst  whom  was  Lieutenant-Colonel  Donal 
O'Madden  of  the  Regiment  de  Fitzgerald,  and  throughout  the  last  century, 
down  to  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  the  O'Maddeus  figured  largely  in  their 
muster-rolls. 

One  of  the  last  of  those  Avho  thus  served  the  House  of  Bourbon  before  its 
sanguinary  extinction,  and  th»^  final  disbaudment  of  the  Irish  regiments  in 
the  royal  service,  was  Morrough  O'Madden — who  in  1785  was  Lieutenant  in 
the  regiment  of  Dillon,  of  the  Irish  Brigade.  The  origin  of  this  splendid 
corps,  in  the  remnant  of  King  James's  Irish  Army,  which  on  the  final  defeat 
of  the  Jacobite  cause,  by  the  fall  of  Limerick,  subsequently  became  the  Irish 
Brigade  in  the  service  of  France,  oi"  whom  about  nineteen  thousand  officers  and 
soldiers  were  reviewed  at  Brest  in  1602,  and  its  achievements  in  the  wars  of 
Louis  XIV.  and  his  successors  are  too  familiar  to  need  any  alltision,  nor 
would  the  limits  at  our  disposal  permit  any  further  account  here  of  the 
many  members  of  the  O'Madden  sept  who  fought  in  the  ranks  of  the  Brigade 
from  16U2  down  to  the  period  of  its  extinction,  during  the  revolutionary  reign 
of  terror  in  1702.  At  the  same  time,  it  would  be  difficult  to  conclude  this 
article  without  some  brief  reference  to  the  ultimate  late  of  that  distinguished 
body  of  Irish  troops. 

Early  in  1782  the  regiment  of  Dillon,  in  which  many  of  the  OMadden's 
liad  served,  v/as  employed  in  a  successful  expedition  to  recover  the  Antilles 
from  England.  After  the  capture  of  the  Island  of  St.  Christopher,  and 
whilst  the  regiment  was  in  occupation  of  St.  Domingo,  peace  was  proclaimed 
between  England,  France,  and  America,  and  by  it  was  terminated  the  active 
military  career  of  the  Irish  Brigade,  which  in  1785  was  reduced  to  the  regi- 
ments of  Dillon,  Berwick,  and  Walshe,  consisting  of  about  5,000  men,  and 
thenceforth  these  ceased  to  be  exclusively  recruited  from  Ireland,  although 
the  officers  continued  Irish  down  to  their  disbandment.  Three  years  from 
the  commencement  of  the  Revolution,  by  a  Decree  of  the  National  Assembly, 
July  1701,  the  distinctive  establishment  of  the  Troiqjes  Etrnngers  an  Service 
de  France  was  established,  and  the  regiments  broken  up  and  transferred  to 
other  corps.  Of  the  existant  officers  of  the  Irish  Brigade,  only  a  few  gave 
their  adhesion  to  the  revoltitionary  government,  and  of  these  some  subse- 
quently served  with  distinction  in  the  Republican  and  Imperial  armies.  The 
great  majority,  as  might  be  anticipated  from  their  antecedents,  more  honour- 
ably adhered  to  the  loosing  or  Royalist  side,  in  the  misfortunes  of  wliicli 
they  participated.  Thus  in  1703,  the  last  commandant  of  the  Regiment  of 
Dillon,  viz..  General  Lord  Charles  Dillon,  was  arrested  as  a  Royahst  and 
ultimately  brought  to  the  guillotine  on  the  14th  of  April  170-1.  It  is  related 
by  an  eyewitness,  on  that  fatal  morning,  as  Dillon  approached  the  blood- 
stained Place  de  la  Revolution — one  of  the  female  victims  about  to  share  his 
fate,    shrnuk  back  from  the  executioners  hand,  and  turning  to  the  gallant 


APPENDIX.  803 

soldier  beside  her,  exclaimed :  •*  Oh,  M.  Dillon,  will  you  go  first  ?  "  to  which 
he  replied :  "  anything  to  oblige  a  lady,"  as  he  preceded  her  to  the  block.  His 
lastwords— "  Vive  le  Roi  " — says  O'Callaghan,  resounded  from  the  scaftbld 
with  as  loud  and  as  firm  a  tone  as  if  he  had  been  giving  the  word  of  command 

for  a  military  evolution.* Nearly  two  years  before  Dillon's  execution, 

the  last  muster  of  the  remnant  of  that  once  formidable  corps,  in  which  so 
many  of  the  descendants  of  the  founders  of  Meehck  Abbey,  with  those  of 
almost  every  other  ancient  Irish  family,  had  as  we  have  seen,  well  sustained 
the  cause  of  France  in  all  the  battletields  of  the  preceding  century,  took  place 
in  1792,  at  Coblentz,  where  the  exiled  Bourbon  princes  and  other  leaders  of 
the  Tioyalist  party  were  then  assembled. 

We  may  here,  in  conclusion,  cite  the  words  in  which  the  Count  de  Provence, 
afterwards  Louis  XVIII.,  brother  of  the  ill-fated  Louis  XVI.,  at  this  epoch,' 
lecorded  the  services,  and  pronounced  the  tinal  dismissal  from  the  pages  of 
history,  of  the  Irish  Brigade  in  the  service  of  France.— "  Gentlemen,"  said 
the  Prince,  in  his  address  to  the  officers  of  that  body.  '•  We  acknowledge 
the  invaluable  services  that  France  has  received  from  the  Irish  Brigade  in 
the  course  of  the  last  hundred  years,  services  that  we  shall  never  forget, 
though  under  an  impossibility  of  requiting  them.  Receive  this  standard  as 
a  pledge  of  our  remembrance,  as  Avell  as  a  monument  of  our  admiration  and 
respect,  and  that  in  future  times,  generous  Irishmen,  this  shall  be  the  motto 
of  your  spotless  Hag  (1602-1792),  Semper  ct  ubique  FideUs.'' 


*  History  of  the  Irish  Brigade  in  the  Service  of  France,  p.  G?,4. 


i^04  APPENDIX. 


ABSTRACT    OF    A    NOTICE    OF    ME.    JOHN    PATTEN— KMMKl'S 
BROTHKll-lN-LAW. 

Bi-  R.  R.  M.  {From  ''The  Nation,  January,  1861."') 

The  followiug  compendious  notice  of  the  termination  of  the  career  of  a 
man  of  great  worth  and  noLle  (Qualities,  who  loved  his  country  well,  and 
suffered  for  it — a  wise  and  a  good  man,  of  Christian  principles,  tolerant 
and  charitable,  utterly  free  from  guile,  eminently  just,  and  of  a  generous, 
kindly,  loving  nature — is,  perhaps,  a  little  too  brief  for  the  occasion:— 

"  January  11th,  at  93  Lower  JMount-street,  Dublin,  died,  John  l^atten, 
Esq.,  aged  !JG  years."'     (Jan.  11th  1864). 

There  are  persons  who  converse  with  the  shadows  of  men  whose  memories 
are  connected  with  historical  events  of  more  or  less  pith  and  moment,  of 
mere  Irish  interest  though  they  be.  For  such  persons  we  put  together  the 
scattered  records  of  the  career  of  John  Patten,  which  we  find  in  a  work  en- 
titled The  Lives  and  Times  of  the  United  Irishmen,  by  E.  il.  Madden,  and 
in  letters  and  other  papers  of  the  late  Mr.  Patten,  which  are  in  the  hands  of 
the  writer  of  this  sketch  :  — 

John  Patten,    the    son  of  the  Kev.  J.  Patten,  Presbyterian  minister  of 
Clonmel  (deceased  in  1787),  by  his  marriage  with  Miss  Margaret  Colville 
(born  in    l7-"}5),  was  the  youngest  of  three  children  by  this  marriage.  ..... 

He  was  born  the  Kith  of  August  1774,  and  consequently  died  in  his  91st, 
not  his  OGili,  year.  His  sister  Jane,  married  to  T.  A.  Emmet  in  1701.  was 
born  lOtli  of  August  1771.  His  brother.  WiUiam  Patten,  was  born  in  1772. 
Mr.  John  Patten  married,  about  1832,  Miss  Orr,  a  Scotch  lady,  and  by  this 
marriage  had  a  son,  John  Patten,  born  in  1823,  who  died  about  twenty  years 
ago,  and  two  other  chiLh-en,  who  died  previously. 

The  maternal  uncle  of  Mr.  John  Patten,  Mr.  William  Colville,  was 
a  merchant  of  this  city,  and  by  him  Mr.  Patten  was  taken  into  his 
house  of  business,  and  eventually  became  his  partner.  Mr.  Colville  was 
succeeded  by  his  sons,  John  and  William  C.  Colville  (the  latter  subse- 
quently was  a  director  of  the  Bank  of  Ireland),  and  Mr.  Patten  ceased  to  be 
connected  with  the  firm.  He  became  intimately  acquainted  with  the  family 
of  old  Dr.  Phnmet,  then  living  in  Stephens  Green,  and  continued  so  to  be 
from  the  time  of  the  marriage  of  T.  A.  Emmet  with  his  sister  in  1791  to  the 
period  of  the  ruin  that  fell  on  it  in  179H,  and  its  utter  desolation  in  180;3. 
^Ir.  Patten  was  not  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Qnited  Irishmen,  but  he  was 
acquainted  with  the  connection  of  T.  A.  Emmet  with  it,  and  having  an  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  Emmet's  projects  in  1803,  was  then  imprisoned  for 
upwards  of  a  year  for  his  alleged  connexion  with  them.  He  had  feelings  of 
the  strongest  affection  for  Robert  Emmet,  and  that  love  and  friendship  of  his 
never  varied.  This  affectionate  sorrow  that  had  been  taught  to  be  proud  of  its 
object,  was  the  same  in  his  old  age  as  it  was  in  his  early  days,  full  of  ardour 
and  admiration,  biit  never  demonstrated  volunarily,  or  on  slight  occasions. 
Elsewhere,  in  the  same  woik,  we  find  that  jNIr.  Patten  was  acquainted  with 
the  fact,  known  only  to  two  persons,  who  were  living  within  a  period  of 
some  twenty  years— the  fact  of  a  nobleman  of  distinguished  I'ank,  viz.,  the 
the  Earl  of  Wycombe  l)cing  well  cognisant  of  the  plans  of  Emmet. 

The  author  of  'J'he  Lives  and  Times  of  the  Vnited  Lishmen  tells  us  : — 
"In  the  month  of  August  1859, 1  accompanied  Blr.  Patten  to  Kilmainham 
Jail,  to  have  the  cell  pointed  out  to  me  where  Robert  Emmet  passed  his  last 
night  in  this  world  ;  and,  on  entering  the  vestibule  of  the  prison,  Mr.  Patten 
without  any  hesitation  or  inquiry,  stepped  up  to  a  door,  the  first  on  entering 
on  the  left  hand  side,  and  recognized  that  room  rather  than  cell — for  it  was 
not  ordinarily  used  as  a  cell — though  Mr.  Patten  had  been  placed  in  con- 
finement in  it,  and  actually  slept  in  Emmet's  bed  the  night  following 
his  execution.     It  is  now  (juite  different  in  its  appearance  to  what  he  romem- 


APPENDIX. 


805 


bers  it.  When  he  entered  the  room,  as  a  prisoner,  Emmet'a  bed  was  just  as  he 
had  slept  in  it  the  night  before  ;  he  (Mr.  Patten )  lay  down  there.  The 
room  is  now  undergoing  such  extensive  alterations  that  in  a  short  time 
it  will  be  totally  different  in  regard  to  size,  doors,  and  windows.  Its 
dimensions  when  Emmet  passed  his  last  night  there,  were  eighteen  feet  in 
height,  sixteen  feet  in  length,  and  fourteen  feet  in  breadth.  After  many 
inquiries,  we  could  find  only  one  person  living  in  the  locality  who  had  any 

knowledge  of  Robert  Emmet  while  in  prison  in  Kilmainham " 

The  author  of  The  History  of  the  United  Irishmen,  writing  in  1859,  said:— 
"  Mr.  Patten,  late  librarian  of  the  Royal  Dublin  Society,  was  the  brother 
of  Mrs.  Emmet,  wife  of  Thomas  Addis  Emmet.  This  venerable  man, 
now  in  his  eighty- sixth  year,  still  survives,  in  Dublin,  revered  by  his  fellow- 
citizens  of  all  creeds  and  parties,  for  that  rare  virtue  of  consistency  that  is 
the  same  in  all  circumstances  and  in  either  fortune.  It  has  been  exhibited 
by  him  in  early  life  as  it  is  found  in  his  old  age,  an  d  all  who  know  the  brother- 
in-law  of  Thomas  A.  Emmet  recognize  in  him  one  whose  equanimity  of  mind 
is  the  result  of  practical  religion— whose  philosophy  is  shown  in  the  toler- 
ance of  his  opinions,  the  moderation  of  his  desires,  the  calmness  of  his 
spirit,  and  the  contentment  of  a  good  conscience.  True  to  his  early  friend- 
ships, to  his  simple  tastes,  to  the  interests  of  his  country— which  he  espoused 
in  youth,  and  clings  to  in  his  declining  years  with  unshaken  fidelity,  after 
all  bis  sufferings  for  them --few  men  have  been  so  faithful  to  their  principles, 
throughout  a  long  and  chequered  career,  as  John  Patten." 

The  same  writer,  was  by  Mr  Patten's  bedside  in  his  last  moments.  All 
that  the  kindness  of  a  faithful  servant  (in  whose  home  he  died)  could  do  for  a 
beloved  master  on  such  an  occasion  was  done.  The  relatives  of  Mrs. 
Patten  did  not  forget  the  offices  of  friendship,  and,  in  particular,  Mr.  Boyle 
was  unremitting  in  his  attention. 

Many  are  the  traits  of  Mr.  Patten's  benevolence  which  have  come  to 
our  personal  knowledge.  AVith  his  hmited  means  it  is  surprising  how 
much  suff'ering  he  relieved.  For  many  years  he  was  in  the  habit  of  paying 
a  weekly  pension— small  in  amount,  but  to  the  objects  of  his  bounty  the  chief 
means  of  subsistence— to  two  poor  widows,  whose  only  claim  on  him  was  their 
destitution.  The  deepest  sorrow  was  manifested  by  the  old  servants  of  the 
institution  with  which  he  was  so  long  connected  when  the  news  of  his  death 
reached  them.  He  had  all  the  urbanity  and  kindness  in  dealing  with  the  poor 
especially,  and  with  his  inferiors,  in  position,  all  the  considerate  gentleness 
and  courtesy  of  a  Christian  gentleman.  In  the  house  where  he  died,  a  few 
hours  after  his  death,  the  present  writer  saw  two  poor  aged  women, 
weeping,  and  recalling  all  the  kind  acts  of  "  the  dear  good  old  gentleman  ;" 
and  one  of  them  said— "I  may  well  lament  his  death,  for  he  was  the  best 
and  kindest  friend,  and  the  only  benefactor  I  ever  had  in  the  world."  _Hia 
servant  man  expressed  himself  in  similar  terms,  and  crying  as  a  son  might 
do  whose  father  was  lying  dead  before  him.  The  writer  of  this  notice  has 
but  one  observation  more  to  make  of  his  departed  friend's  character, 
Mr.  Patten  \vas  not  a  member  of  his  Church.  He  appreciates,  however, 
as  highly  as  the  member  of  any  Church  can  do,  a  true  spirit  of  tolerant 
charity,  and  that  he  has  never  seen  exemplified  more  uniformly  than  in  the 
practice  and  the  principles  of  the  late  John  Patten.  He  was,  indeed,  a  truly 
Christian  gentleman.    Peace  be  to  his  ashes, 

R.  R.  M. 


21 


306  APPENDIX. 


JOHN  CORNELIUS  O'CALLAGHAN. 

[To  tlie  foregoing  notices  of  some  of  Dr.  Madden's  friends,  may  be  appended  a  brief  sketch 
of  one  of  the  most  valued  and  oldest  of  his  literary  associates,  contributed  to  tbe  Irish 
Monthly  Magazine,  in  T/hich,  with  some  additions,  it  was  pubhshed  in  August,  1890.] 

The  name  of  John  CorneliuB  O'Callaghan  is  one  entitled  to  a  prominent 
place  in  the  long  Hst  of  Irish  literary  celebrities,  and  is  certainly  deserving 
of  fuller  recognition  than  has  yet  been  awarded  to  his  life-long  labours  in 
the  cause  of  his  country's  history. 

The  newspaper  obituaries  at  the  time  of  his  death,  and  a  sliort  article  in  The 
Irish  Monthly  Magazine  are  the  only  record  of  a  man  whose  individuality  of 
character  was  as  remarkable  as  his  genius,  and  whose  services  in  rescuing 
from  misrepresentation  and  oblivion  some  of  the  least  known  an-l  most  import- 
ant passages  of  Hibernian  history  are  probably  reserved  for  the  appreciation  of 
future  times  less  troubled  than  the  present.  If  left  unnoticed  until  then,  how- 
ever, nothing  more  than  his  works  can  survive,  and  the  personality  of  the  man 
and  those  traits  which  were  familiar  to  his  contemporaries  will  be  no  longer 
known.  Hence,  from  the  sources  just  mentioned,  supplemented  by  circum- 
stances referred  to  by  O'Callaghan  in  his  works  or  in  his  conversations 
during  an  acquaintance  extending  from  those  distant  "boyhood's  years — now, 
alas  !  more  than  poor  Mangan's  "  Twenty  Golden  Years  Ago,"  when  I  first 
met  Mr.  O'Callaghan  at  my  father's  table,  down  to  the  time  when,  in  the 
same  company,  I  sat  by  his  death-bed  and  followed  his  hearse  to  Glasnevin 
Cemetery,  during  which  long  period  I  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  intimate 
friendship  with  the  historian  of  The  Irish  Brigade,  has  been  compiled 
the  following  notice  of  a  man  who  well  merits  a  better  chronicle  than  these 
imperfect  reminiscences. 

John  Cornelius  O'Callaghan  was  born  in  Dublin  in  1805,  and,  as  he  boasted, 
drew  his  blood  from  canny  Ulster  as  well  as  from  the  more  fervid  and 
imaginative  Munster  race.  His  father,  Mr.  John  O'Callaghan,  of  Talbot- 
street,  was  one  of  the  first  Catholics  admitted  to  the  profession  of  attornej' 
in  Ireland,  on  the  partial  relaxation  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  1793,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  Union  was  a  highly  respected  solicitor,  who  succeeded  in  amass- 
ing a  competency  which  subsequently  enabled  the  younger  O'Callaghan  to 
follow  his  literary  tastes.  His  mother  was  a  southern  lady — a  Miss  Donovan, 
who  is  described  as  having  been  a  beauty  in  her  youth,  and  whom  I  well 
remember  in  her  latter  years  as  a  highly  intellectual  woman. 

At  an  early  age  John  Cornelius  O'Callaghan  was  sent  as  a  pupil  to  the  then 
nev/ly-estabiished  Jesuit  College  of  Clongowes  Wood,  where  he  was  imbued 
with  that  love  of  classical  learning  which  distinguished  his  after  life,  and 
with  those  principles  of  religion  which  consoled  his  last  moments.  Subse- 
quently he  was  transferred  to  another  school  nearer  to  Dublin,  at  Blanchards- 
town,  kept  by  a  Catholic  priest,  the  Eev.  Joseph  Joy  Deane.  At  the 
completion  of  his  education  he  became  a  candidate  for  membership  in  his 
father's  profession,  but,  fortunately  for  the  interest  of  Irish  history,  he 
evinced  such  a  dislike  for  those  shrewd  practices  and  pettifogging  ways  by 
which,  he  was  wont  to  say,  success  in  the  law  is  chiefly  attainable,  that  as 
soon  as  possible  he  shook  its  dust  from  his  feet,  and  devoted  himself  wholly 
to  the  more  congenial  if  less  profitable  pursuits  of  literature. 

Of  his  brothers,  of  whom  he  had  either  two  or  three,  he  was  accustomed 
to  refer  most  frequently  and  in  terms  of  warm  afiection  to  the  younger,  who, 
having  entered  the  medical  department  of  the  army  at  an  early  age,  retired, 
after  a  long  service  in  India,  with  the  rank  of  Surgeon-General,  and  is  still 


APPENDIX.  307 


living  in  l-'ngland  with  liis  family,  one  of  whom  was,  I  believe,  married  to 
Mr.  Irving,  the  well-known  actor.  His  sisters  were  married  and  left  families, 
of  whom  two  ladies  residing  in  this  city  and  one  distinguished  clergyman  of 
the  Vincentian  Order  are  the  surviving  representatives. 

Mr.  O'Callaghan's  mother,  from  whom  he  apparently  inherited  much  of 
his  talent  as  well  as  the  originality  of  his  character,  was  a  lady  of  con- 
siderable mental  culture  and  some  eccentricity,  who  attained  a  very  advanced 
age.  One  of  my  earliest  recollections  of  O'Callaghau  goes  back  to  my  boy- 
hood, when  I  was  sent  with  some  message  to  his  house  in  Dorset-street, 
where  I  met  his  mother,  then  a  very  old  lady,  but  with  mind  and  memory 
unimpaired  hy  age.  The  scene  was  one  I  shall  never  forget.  The  venerable 
matron,  oddly 'dressed,  and  retaining  little  trace  of  her  early  comeli- 
ness, filled  an  arm-chair  on  one  side  of  the  fire-place,  whilst  the  opposite 
one  was  occupied  by  her  son,  clad  in  a  flowing  dressing-robe  of  faded  pattern, 
his  customary  bag  wig  replaced  by  an  old-fashioned  white  nightcap,  and 
there  they  sat  for  nearly  an  hour,  heedless  of  any  interruption,  discussing 
Bome  forgotten  point  of  historical  controversy  with  extraordinary  learning 
and  equal  vehemence  on  both  sides,  until  at  last  both  appealed  to  my  judg- 
ment, to  my  no  small  bewilderment  and  consternation.  To  the  day  of  her 
death,  O'Callaghan's  respect  and  love  for  his  mother  were  constant  and 
unfailing,  and  to  her  he  always  ascribed  his  own  literary  tastes  and  much  of 
the  knowledge  embodied  in  his  works. 

O'Callaghan's  first  appearance  in  print  was  in  the  columns  of  The  Comet, 
a  newspaper  established  in  1831  by  the  members  of  the  Comet  Club,  and  in 
the  Irish  Monthly  Magazine  of  Politics  and  Literature,  which  from  1>^3() 
to  1833  was  conducted  by  INIr.  Ronayue,  then  M.P.  for  Dungarvan,  and  two 
other  barristers,  INIessrs.  Close  and  Kennedy,  and  amongst  the  contributors 
to  which,  besides  Mr.  oCallaghan,  Daniel  O'Connell,  his  eldest  daughter, 
Mrs.  Fitzsimons,  Eichard  J  alor  Sheil,  and  many  other  distinguished  Irish 
writers  were  included. 

The  abolition  of  the  Protestant  Church  Establishment  in  Ireland  as  a  State- 
supported  institution  was  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  the  Comet  Club ;  and 
by  the  able  newspaper  which  owed  its  existence  to  that  body  was  sown  the 
seeds  of  the  agitation  that  bore  fruit  long  subsequently  in  the  disestablish- 
ment and  disendowmeut  of  the  once-appaiently  unassailable  citadel  of 
sectarian  intolerance  and  ascendancy.  "  To  get  rid  of  such  a  glaring  insult 
to  justice,  Christianity,  and  Protestantism  in  general,  and  to  Ireland  in  par- 
ticular," says  Mr.  O'Callaghan,*  the  original  Comet  Club,  a  political  and 
literary  society  embracing  members  of  various  creeds,  had  the  merit  of  com- 
bining in  Dublin  about  the  commencement  of  1831.  From  the  head-quarters 
of  the  club.  No.  10  D'Olier-street,  the  commencing  blaze  of  the  vigorous  fire 
against  the  Established  Church,  and  in  favour  of  the  voluntary  system, 
which  has  been  since  so  widely  spread  throughout  England  and  Scotland, 
was  in  consequence  kindled  by  the  irregular  and  fantastic  but  keen  and 
scorching  Hght  of  The  ParsoiVs  Horn-Book.  The  first  edition  of  this, 
with  etchings  by  Lover,  was  sold  oil  in  less  than  a  fortnight,  and  the  gene- 
ral impressions  of  ridicule  and  disgust  towards  the  State  Established  Church 
were  briskly  kept  up  by  other  publications  of  the  club,  but  particularly  by 
the  establishment  of  The  Comet,  a  weekly  Sunday  newspaper.  The 
principles  which  The  Comet  maintained  cannot  be  better  expressed  than 
by  the  following  lines  that  appeared  above  the  signature,  Alfieri,  in  its 
first  number ; — 

*  "  The  Green  Book,''  by  .John  Cornelius  O'Callaghan,  p.  30,  DnbUn,  1845 

21  • 


308  APPT^NIMX. 


«'  Our  Comet  shines  to  chase  foul  mists  away, 
And  drive  dark  falsehood  from  her  cell  to-day, 
To  scathe  the  hands  that  break  man's  chartered  laws, 
Or  pounce  on  nations  with  a  vulture's  claws. 
To  raise  the  prostrate,  soothe  the  anguished  breast, 
To  check  the  oppressor,  bid  the  goaded  rest — 
To  give  to  man  true  knowledge  of  his  kind. 
And  lift  hira  to  that  rank  which  Heaven  designed — 
For  ends  like  these,  from  high  our  Comet  moves. 
Bright  freedom  wings  it,  and  fair  Truth  approves. 

"  Yes — 'twill  be  ours  to  check  the  bigot's  frown. 
Or  despot's  stride  that  tramples  freedom  down. 

"  Yes — Themis'  bench  shall  see  no  hand  impure 
Deal  partial  laws  to  crush  the  suffering  poor — 
And  bloated  prelates  shall  with  bigots  tiy, 
AVhile  pure  Religion  waves  her  torch  on  high, 
And  Sacred  Truth,  with  gospel-flag  unfurled, 
Diffuse  uupaid-for  doctrines  throughout  the  world." 

Such  were  the  principles  on  which  The  Comet  commenced  its  course,  and 
so  successful  was  the  venture,  that  from  May  to  October,  1831,  when  its 
origmal  founders  retired  from  its  direction,  it  rapidly  rose  to  a  circulation 
then  considered  large,  of  2,300  copies.  After  this  time  its  character 
became  altered  and  deteriorated  by  the  introduction  of  local  personalities 
and  scandal,  by  which,  at  the  expiration  of  two  years,  its  circulation  was 
eventually  destroj'ed,  and  by  the  secession  of  the  majority  of  the  original 
Comet  Club  from  that  paper,  when  they,  with  other  gentlemen,  formed 
themselves  into  anotlier  literary  society  called  the  "  Irish  Brigade,"  and  got 
up  a  periodical,  entitled  The  Irish  Monthly  Magazine. 

Of  the  two  literary  and  political  associations  just  referred  to,  which  in- 
cluded so  many  men  of  ability,  probably  the  last  survivor  was  Mr.  O'Calla- 
ghan.  The  best  testimony  to  the  merit  of  these  societies  was  the  reluctant 
tribute  paid  by  one  of  their  oldest  opponents  in  the  cause  of  misrule  and 
Orange  ascendancy,  namely,  the  Quarterly  Revietv,  which  at  that  time 
admitted  that  each  of  them  had  "exhibited  public  proof  that  its  labours 
were  not  frivolous  or  unproductive." 

Mr.  O'Callaghan's  contributions  to  The  Comet  and  Irish  Monthly 
Magazine,  with  several  others  of  his  earlier  writings,  were  reprinted  in  a 
now  scarce  volume,  under  the  title  of  The  Green  Book ;  or,  Gleanings 
from  the  Writing-desk  of  a  Literary  Agitator.  The  first  edition  of  this 
curious  Olla  podrida  of  historic  and  political  research,  with  some  forty  of 
his  poetical  pieces,  was  published  in  Dublin  by  the  late  Mr.  James  Duffy  in 
1N40,  and  the  second  edition,  adorned  with  an  excellent  likeness  of  the 
autlior,  by  W.  H.  Holbrooke,  in  1845. 

In  the  earlier  volumes  of  The  Nation  he  was  a  frequent  and  valued  con- 
tributor, and  his  services  to  that  famous  journal  have  been  generously 
acknowledged  by  Sir  Charles  Gavan  Duffy  in  his  Young  Ireland,  and 
still  more  recently  in  his  "  Life  of  Thomas  Davis."  Indeed,  O'Callaghan 
was  wont  to  claim  a  share  in  the  origin  of  The  Nation,  and  in  the  preface 
to  his  second  edition  to  his  Gree7i  Book,  he  refers  to  it  as  "that  able 
weekly  periodical,  the  necessity  for  whose  establishment  in  Dublin  was  first 
suggested  by  the  present  publication." 

If  O'Callaghan  had  never  written  anything  beyond  the  notes  to  his  edition 
of  the  Macarics  Excidium,  published  in  1860  by  the  Arch  geological  Society, 


APPENDIX.  309 


is  sufficient  evidence  of  his  extraordinary  erudition,  industry,  and  love  of 
country  might  be  found  therein.  This  work  drew  forth  the  most  flattering 
tributes  to  the  editor's  historic  accuracy  and  learning,  even  from  those  most 
strenuously  opposed  to  all  his  views.  Thus  Macaulay,  for  instance,  wrote 
to  him:  "To  a  considerable  extent  our  views  coincide.  I  admit  that  the 
Irish  were  not  like  the  English  Jacobites,  the  defenders  of  arbitrary  power. 
The  cause  of  James  presented  itself,  no  doubt,  to  the  Eoman  Catholics  of 
]\Iunster  as  the  cause  of  civil  and  spiritual  liberty."  When  Macaulay  \isited 
Ireland  in  quest  of  information  bearing  on  the  Jacobite  and  Williamite 
Wars  in  this  country,  he  expressed  a  wish  to  see  the  editor  of  the  Macarics 
Excidium,  and  the  latter  was  accordingly  requested  to  wait  on  the  eloquent 
word-painter  whose  historic  accuracy  was  less  conspicuous  than  his  brilliant 
descriptive  power.  O'Callaghan,  however,  resented  this  summons  as  an 
indignity.  "No  sir,"  he  repUed,  "I  shall  not  wait  on  Mr.  Macaulay.  If 
Mr.  Macauley  desires  an  interview,  he  can  ascertain  where  I  live,  and  may 
call  on  Mr.  O'Callaghan." 

As  a  politician,  O'Callaghan  was  an  ardent  and  uncompromising  nationa- 
list of  the  old  school,  of  which  the  typical  representatives  were  Thomas  Davis, 
Gavan  Dufl'y,  E.  R.  Madden,  Denis  Florence  McCarthy,  Father  Meehan,  R.  D. 
Williams,  Clarence  Mangan,  Maurice  and  John  OConnell,  Denny  Lane, 
Wilham  Dreunan,  Edward  Walsh,  and  those  other  gifted  men  of  genius  and 
letters,  whose  names  with  his  own  may  be  found  in  Songs  and  Ballads, 
by  writers  in  The  Nation,  published  in  1846.  His  habits  and  tastes,  how- 
ever, were  not  such  as  to  lead  him  into  any  prominent  participation  in  the 
turmoil  of  public  political  life.  Nevertheless,  he  was  a  warm  supporter  of 
O'Connell,  not  only  in  the  great  Tribune's  gatherings  in  ConciHation  Hall, 
but  also  at  the  monster  meetingsof  1843,  where  O'Connell,  then  in  the  zenith 
of  his  power,  swayed  the  vast  multitudes  that  thronged  around  him  at  Tara, 
Athlone,  and  Mullaghmast.  At  the  last  named  meeting,  in  October,  1843, 
conjointly  with  Hogan  the  sculptor,  in  the  presence  of  400,000  spectators, 
he  took  part  in  crowning  the  Liberator  with  a  facsimile  of  the  ancient 
Irish  regal  diadem. 

This,  I  believe,  was  O'Callaghan's  last  appearance  on  a  public  platform 
After  the  secession  of  the  Young  Ireland  Party  he  confined  bis  political 
efforts  to  the  emanations  of  his  prolific  pen.  Nor  in  the  more  recent  politi- 
tical  affairs  of  later  years  did  he  again  appear  in  the  arena  of  public  life, 
although  consistently  maintaining  to  the  final  moments  of  existence  all  the 
opinions  of  his  youtli  and  manhood. 

Mr.  O'Callaghan's  latest,  and  perhaps  his  greatest  work  was  the  History 
of  the  Irish  Brigade  "  in  the  Service  of  France  and  other  foreign  countries, 
between  the  dethronement  of  James  II.  and  the  death  of  the  Young  Pre- 
tender. This,  after  many  ineffectual  efforts  to  obtain  a  publisher  at  home, 
was  brought  out  by  Messrs.  Cameron,  of  Glasgow,  in  1867,  and,  as  has  been 
well  said,  is  "  a  mine  of  information  from  which  future  historians  will  be  glad 
to  draw  their  materials,"  as  well  as  the  labour  of  love  on  which  he  expended 
the  energies  of  the  best  part  of  his  life.  As  far  back  as  March  3,  1843,  John 
O'Connell  writes  from  Carysfort  Avenue,  Blackrock,  telling  Davis  that  he 
had  made  over  all  his  Irish  Brigade  documents  to  O'Callaghan,  who  was  then 
living  at  37  Upper  Merrion-street,  and  whom  he  asked  Davis  to  consult  on 
the  matter,  as  61  Baggot-street  was  not  many  paces  distant.  Our  author 
was  thus  preparing  for  his  magnum  ojjus  during  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century. 

There  has  been  more  than  one  reference  to  the  fact  that  O'Callaghan 
(lid  not  confine  himself  to  sober  prose,  but  not  unfrequently  indulged  in  a 
poetic  tlight,  as  may  be  seen  by  his  Green  Book  in  which  are  included  no 
less  than  forty-two  specimens  of  his  verse.  These,  with  some  exceptions, 
were  chiefiy  on  ephemeral  topics  of  the  day,  and  hence  have  now  lost  much 


810  APPENDIX. 


of  their  original  interest.  Nor  can  it  be  pretended  that  his  muse  soared  very 
high,  or  that  its  «jefusions  are  hkely  to  survive  theremernVrnriCr  of  his  friends 
and  contemporaries.  One  specimen  may  here  suffice — his  epigram  on  the 
weeping  and  laughing  philosophers  : — 

"  '  If  we  look,'  says  Eacine,  '  to  the  lives  of  the  wise, 

What  opposite  maxims  we  find  ! 
Here  said  Herachtus  despondingly  cries, 

While  Democritus  laughs  nt  mankind.' 
Yet  as  long  as  my  stay  in  this  planet  extends, 

To  follow  them  both  I  propose  ; 
With  one,  may  I  weep  for  my  sutFering  friends— 

With  the  other,  I'll  laugh  at  my  foes." 

O'Callaghan's  acquaintance  with  the  forgotten  bye-ways  of  ancient  literary 
research  was  probably  unrivalled.  As  a  writer  (quoted  in  the  Irish  Monthly 
Magazine,  vol.  xv.,  page  249)  says: — "He  knew  almost  the  exact  spot  in 
which  reposed  every  old  manuscript  in  Europe.  Living  as  he  did  amongst 
the  ancients,  he  had  their  sayings  always  on  his  tongue,  and  would  walk  into 
a  friend's  drawingroom  quoting  Hannibal  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  the  impres- 
sion that  the  great  general  had  just  left  him  at  the  gate.  A  man  to  shed 
tears  for  the  death  of  a  pet  canary,  or  to  lash  himself  to  fury  over  a  tale  of 
human  injustice  or  wrong  :  he  had  a  just  and  almost  a  martial  spirit.  He 
was  one  of  an  old  school  now  passing  away — of  a  small  band  of  intrepid 
savants  who  denied  themselves  much  that  is  desirable  in  life  in  order  to  toil 
amongst  the  ruins  of  our  language  and  past,  resolved  that  all  traces  of  the 
prints  left  by  noble  Irish  feet  should  not  be  wholly  obliterated  from  the 
sands  of  time." 

O'Callaghan's  death  took  place  at  his  residence  in  Fitzgibbon -street,  Dublin, 
in  the  seventy- seventh  year  of  his  age.  His  last  hours  Avere  soothed  by  the 
consolations  of  his  religion,  and  the  untiring  ministrations  of  one  of  the 
most  venerable  and  zealous  priests  who  ever  adorned  the  Catholic  Church  of 
Ireland  and  his  own  distinguished  Order,  viz.,  the  late  Father  Callan,  S.J. 
During  that  illness  the  present  writer  had  the  privilege  of  witnessing  the 
resignation  and  piety  with  which  his  dear  old  friend  bore  the  pains  of  ap- 
proaching dissolution,  and  the  humble  confidence  with  Avhich  he  looked 
forward  to  that  better  life  beyond  the  grave,  to  which  he  passed  with  faculties 
undimmed  by  age  or  infirmity,  on  the  2-4th  of  April,  1883. 

T.  M.  M. 


THE    END, 


INDEX. 


INDEX 


Abbey  of  Meelick 

Aboukii",  Bay  of  .  ,  . 

Abolition  of  Slavery  in  West  Indies 

„  „        in  America 

Abbott,  Mr.  F.,  .  .  . 

Acton,  Sir  A.  John 

Affre,  Monseigueur,  Archbishop  of  Paris      . 

Africa,  West  Coast,  Appointed  Special  Commissioner  of  Inquiry 

— Residence  there — Report  Presented  to  Parliament 

— Controversy  on  Slave-Trade 

Ainsworth,  William  Harrison 

A'Kempis,  Thomas  .... 

Ali  JMelieraet,  Pasha  of  Egypt,  Reminiscences  of 
America,  North.  Account  of  Three  Visits  to 
American  Indians,  tlieir  Condition 
American  Press 

.,         Social  and  Literary  Life 
"  Araistad,"  The,  Captives  of,  an  Episode  of  the  Slave-Trade 
Amistad,  Captives  of  the 
Ancestors,  Dr.  ]Madden's 

Anster,  John,  LL.D.       .... 
Anti- Slavery  Convention 
Anti- Slavery  Convention,  French 

Anti-Slavery  Employment,  Commencement  of  Connexion  with 
Anti-Slavery  Labours  in  Jamaica  , 

,,  in  Cuba      ,  ,  , 

, ,  in  America 

„  in  Egypt 

„  in  West  Africa 


PAGE 

295 

30 

69,  73 

06 

100 

217 

110 


.   no 

117 

180 

222 

37 

^6, 

107 

106 

91 

87,  07 

82 

81 

116 

237 

110 

119 

62 

70, 

173 

7^ 

,  80 

81 

110 

112, 

117 

314 


IWDEX. 


Auti-Slavery  Society,  Address  from 

Annuals,  Lady  Blessington's 

Armagh,  Primate  of,  Letter  from 

Asia  Minor,  A  Ride  Through 

Anspach,  The  Margravine  of.  Notice  of  Her  Career 

Athenceum,  Early  Contributions  to  the 

Austrahan  Aborigines,  Their  Ill-treatment— Mental  Capacity 
Our  Duties  Towards 

Australia,  Western,  Dr.  Madden's  Appointment  as  Colonial 
Secretary— Voyage  to — Its  Condition  and  Govern 
ment — Despatches  Concerning— Retirement  from— 
Correspondence 


Bannister,  J.  M.,  the  Actor,  Reminiscences  of 

Banim  Michael  .... 

Barbadoes        ..... 

Beattie,  Dr.  William,  Poems  and  Letters  of 

"  Beda  "  Madden,  Death  of  . 

Bedouins,  Adventure  with 

Beranger,  the  Poet         .... 

Belem,  Lines  on  ...  . 

Belle  of  the  Ocean,  Lines  on  the 

Betblehem,  Visit  to        . 

Blessington,  Lord,  Letters  from   . 

„        Recollection  of  Lord  Blessington  in  Rome,  &c 
Blessington,  Lady,  Letters  from 
Blessington,  Lady.  Account  of  Her  Career,  Her  Literary  Sur 

roundings— Gore  House 
Blessington,  Memoirs  by  Madden 
Bloomingdale  Asylum,  New  York 
Books,  Farewell  to.  Lines 
Bordeaux,  Residence  there,  1821 
Booterstowu   '  .  .  ,  . 

Brady,  Most  Rev.  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Perth 
Brady,  Dr.  Mazier  .  e  ,  . 


PAGE 

111 
182 
216 
28 
50,  52 
121 

•230,  31 


223,  234 


57 

237 

64 

180,  197,  220 

271 

43,  44 

110,  120 

190 

147 

46 

10,5,  106 

48,  177 

180,  193,  197 

176,  1S4 
179,  25» 
104 
236 
10 
278 
230 
237 


INDEX. 


315 


Biaudenburg  House       :  :  .  . 

"Breathings    of    Prayer,";   Unpublished  Volume  of  Poems 

Specimens  of  .  .  . 

Breifne.  O'Kourke's  of,  their  Contiexiou  ^nth  Mftdden  Family 
Brigade,  Irish  in  French  Service 
Bright,  Mr.  John,  M.P.,  Visit  to  Ireland,   203  ;  Correspondence 

with  .... 

Broglie,  Duke  of  .  ;  . 

Brougham,  Lord  .... 

Burke,  Sir  Bernard,  Correspondence  with    . 
Buxton,  Sir  T.  F.,  . 

Byron,  Lord,  .... 


180, 
200, 


PAGE 

51 

84 
85 


265 
110 
205 
218 
203 


Catfrey,  Thomas  M'Donnell  .  .  .      ' 

Cairo,  Kesidence  in,  1825-27  .  .  . 

Cairo,  Pie-visited  .... 

Campbell,  The  Abbe,  Account  of 
Campbell,  'Jhomas,  The  Pott 

.,  Letters  from 

Canada,  Journey  Througli 
Candia,  Kesidence  there  during  Gretk  "War 
Cana,  of  Galilee  .... 

Canterbury,  Viscountess 
Cape  Coast  Castle, 
Cape  Coast  Castle,  Controversy   with    Governor  M'Lean  on 

Slavery,  at  .      ■ 

Cape  Coast  Castle,  L.  E.  L's.  Grave 
Cape,  Miss    .  ... 

Capital  Punishment,  Inexpediency  of 
Capitol,  The,  "Washington  ,  .  , 

Carbonari        »  .  .  .  • 

Catholic  Keligion,  Mrs.  Maddtin's  Conversion  to         , 
CathoUc,  Church  in  Ireland,  its  Persecutions 
Chanuing,  Dr.  .  *  •  . 


287 
80 

HI 
52 
2,  179,  222 
109,  2U0 
97 
33 
43 

176 

lU 

111 

lis 

173 

272 

93 

18 

61 

300 

177 


31(3 


iNDiiX. 


Charleville,  Countess  of 

Children,  Lines  on 

Child,  Death  of  a,  Lines  on 

Christmas  Carol,  Lines 

Chronicle,  Mornimj,  Special  Correspondent 

Church,  Protestant,  Established  in  Ireland,  Its  Abolition 

Clare,  Lord 

Clarkson,  Thomas,  Letter  from     . 

Cloncurry,  Lord,  Correspondence  with 

Cogan,  Mrs.  E. 

Cogan,  Eight  Hon.  William  H.  F. 

Colborne,  Sir  Jolin 

Coleman,  George,  Actor 

Coleman  the  Younger    . 

Colonial  Office,  Correspoudence  ^rith 

Colonists  in  Canada 

„  Australia     . 

Colonial  Secretary,  Western  Australia,  Dr.  Maddens  Services  as 
Coltman,  Judge 
Comet  Newspaper 
Connolly,  Lady  Louisa 

Constantinople,  Account  uf  Residence  there 
"  Connexion  between  England  and  Ireland,'  Work  on 
Conway,  F.  W. 

Costa  Cabral,  Sen  or  De,  Portuguese  Minister 
Cotrell,  Mr.,  of  Naples 
Craven,  Lady 
Cremieux,  M. 
Crete,  Island  of 

Crimean  War,  Letter  from  Sir  J.  Stephen  on 
Crime  and  Poverty,  Connection  between 
Cuba 

,,      Escape  from  Assassination 


PAGE 

179 

271 

132 

IfiO 

189 

205 

108 

117 

206 

21,  234 

234 

98 

57 

56 

81 

98 

19 

309 

108 

28,  32 

175 

191 

54 

51 

110 

82 

212 

224 

83 

83 


INDEX. 


317 


Cuban  Slavery  and  Slave-Trade    .  ,  •  . 

Cuba,  Three  Years  Residence  and  Anti-Slavery  Residence  there 
Cuba,  Island  of,  Dr.  Madden 's  Work  on,  Published  in  18A9 

,,  „        Correspondence  on 

Cuban  Slavery  Described 
Curian,  John  Philpot,  Reminiscences  of 
Curran,  Miss  Sarah 
Curzon  Street,  Mayfuir,  Professional  Residence,  in 


PAGE 

77 

7^,85 

83 

59,  203 

77 

4,5 

102 

54 


Damietta        .... 

Damascus,  Mission  to 

Dante's  Creed,  Lines  on 

Davis,  Thomas 

Dead,  Memorials  of  the,  Lines    . 

Derby,  Earl  of,  Correspondence  with 

Dickens,  Mr.  Charles,  Controversy  with 

Disraeli,  Benjamin 

Dixon,  Arih bishop.  Letter  from   . 

D'Orsay,  Count 

Drennau,  Wm. 

Dublin  Jicriew,  The      . 

Dachenois,  Mademoiselle,  her  histrionic  jiower! 

Duels  and  Duelling 

Duffy,  Sir  Charles  Gavan 

Duke  de  Broglie 

Michael  Dwyer,  ,  , 


39 

no 

154 
218,  308 
15  G 
271 
262 
179 
21(5 
184,188,  203 

33 
219 

56 
13,50 

89 
119 
237 


"  Easter  Offering,"  Poems  published,  1851 
Bocentric  Club 
Egerton,  Sir  John  G.    . 


254 
23 
22 


318 


INDEX. 


Egypt,  Residence  in        . 

,.       Mission  to,  in  18.42  .  .  • 

„       Last  Visit  to,  in  1861 
"  Egypt  and  Mahomed  Ali,"  Work  on,  publication  of 
^Imslie,  Miss  Harriet  T.,  Dr.  Maddens  Marriage  with 

,,        Notice  of  her  life  .  .  . 

Elton,  Mr.       . 

Emmet,  Judge  .  .  ;  . 

Emmet,  Rohert,  ImprisonmiMit  and  Death 
Emmet,  Thomas  Addis,  His  Tomb 
Emancipation  of  Slaves  in  Jamaica  in  1831 
Emigrant's  Grave,  Lines  on  . 

Emigrant  Ship,  Voyage  in  a  . 

Erskine,  Lord  .... 

"  Esmerald,"  Voyage  of  the 
Evictions,  Irish  in  1849 
Eviction.  Lines  on  . 

Expostulation  and  Agitation,  Lines  on 

Famine  Years  in  Ireland,  Letters  on 

"  Farewell  to  Ireland,"  I-ines 

Farrell,  Very- Rev.  Canon 

Faulkner,  Sir  Frederick  .  .  .        • 

Fenian   Rising  of  18G7,  Protest   against  death  punishment  of 

Leaders 
Ferguson,  Sir  Samuel 
Fitzgerald,  Lady  Edward  (Pamela) 
Fitzgerald,  Lord  Edward 
Fitzherbert,  Mrs.  .... 

Fitzpatrick,  W.  F.  . 

Fitzpatrick,  P.  V.         .  .  .  .  . 

Forde,  of  Carry 

„       Miss  Elizabeth  ..  ..  .. 

,,       Wm.  F.  Madden 
Foster,  Mr.  Matthew,  M, P.,  Controversy  with 


PAGE 

3fi,   17 

110 

960 

175 

60 

203 

18 

92 

805 

105 

71 

75 

102 

180 

102 

951 

lia 

141 

240,  254 

]m 

237 

54 


271 

I'm 

y2 

272 
53 
i4l 

21-0 


16.^ 


3 

103,  227 
113,  115 


INDIX. 


319 


PAGE 


Freeman's  Journal,  Mr.  Madden's  Letters  and  Reports  during 


Irish  Famine  Period 

. 

240,  25i 

Freeman's  Journal  on  O'Connell  Monument 

268 

Freemantle,  W.  Australia 

224 

Froude,  Mr.  J.  A.           . 

209 

Gahan,  Rev.  Dr.              .... 

3 

*'  Galileo  and  the  Inquisition  "    . 

2C)f) 

Gardiner,  Lady  Harriet 

178 

Gell,  SirW.                   ...» 

55 

Gilbert,  J.  T.                 .... 

237 

Gladstone,  Right  Hon.  Wm.  E.,  Letters  from 

209,  258 

Glenelg,  Lord 

175 

Godkin,  Mr.  J.               .                .                .                . 

237 

Gold  Coast,  Visit  to 

213 

Gore  House,  Reminiscene«53  of  its  Celebrities 

170,  184 

"  Grace,"  Lines  on        . 

156 

Granimont,  Duke  de      . 

178 

Gi'anada,  Island  of        . 

65 

Grattiiu,  Henry              .... 

214 

Greek  War,  Visit  to  Crete  dnrin^' 

33 

Grey,  Earl,  Correspondt-noe  with 

231 

Guichp,  Due  de               .... 

185 

Hakim,  Turkish,  Dr.  INIadden's  experience  as  a 

30 

Hall,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  C. 

118 

Haughton,  James 

. 

230,  2G4,  27  I 

Havana,  Residente  in  the 

77,  84 

Haverty,  Martin 

238 

Hay  don,  the  painter 

18G 

Healy,  Rev.  J. 

237 

Hector,  Visit  to  Tomb  of 

33 

Hellespont,  the 

32 

Hennessy,  Wm. 

238 

350 


INDKX. 


PACK 

Herald,  The  Morninfi,  Dr.  Madden's  Conn.^xion  with 

2:^>,  121 

Hershell,  John                .                 .                 .                 •                • 

25 

Hood,  Thomas 

ISO 

Hodgkens,  D. 

10) 

Holland,  Lady                .                 .                 .                 .                 • 

179 

Holy  Land,  Visit  to  the                  .                 .                .                 . 

41, i7 

Holy  Sepulchre,  Church  of  the     .                 .                 .                . 

46 

Hy-Many,  the  O'Madden's  of         . 

283,  294 

Ibrahim  Pasha                .                 .                 .                 .                 . 

34 

Isarabert,  Mons.             .                 .                 .                 .                 . 

206 

Italy,  First  Visit  to         . 

15 

"     Second  and  Third  do.           .                .                .                 . 

25 

Italy,  The  Blessington's  in           . 

179 

Indians,  North  American               .                 .                 .                . 

206 

"  Infirmities  of  Genius,"  published  in  1833 

174 

"Ireland  and  England,"  History  of  their  Connexion,  Work  on 

175 

"  Irish  Periodical  Literature,  History  of" 

270 

Irish  Famine  Years 

240,  254 

Irish  Land  and  Church  Questions,  on 

264,  2o7 

Irving,  Washington       .... 

201 

Jamaica,  Appointment  as  Special  Magistrate  there    . 

62 

Jamaica,  Life  and  Work  there  during  Abolition  of  Slavery 

65,  73 

Jerusalem,  Visit  to,  and  Lines  on 

44,  45,  40,  157 

Jesuits,  Unpublished  History  of  the 

122 

Jesuits,  Calumnies,  on,  Refuted  lay  R.  E.  M. 

262 

Jordan,  Visit  to  the       .... 

43 

Judge  Arbitrator  in  Havana,  Dr.  Madden's  appointment  as 

103 

Kean,  Charles                  .                 .                 .                 . 

56 

Kemble,  Actor,  Recollections  of 

56 

Visit  to  tomb  of 

49 

„        Miss  Fanny      .... 

180 

Kingston,  Jamaica 

66 

321 


Kilronan,  Lines  on        . 

Kilrush  Workhouse  in  the  Famine  Years    .  ,  , 

Knowles,  Sheridan        -  .  .  .  , 

Lamartine      ...... 

Lamenaise,  The  Abbe  de  .  ... 

Landor,  Walter  Savage  .... 

„      Letters  fi'om     ..... 

L.  E.  L.  (Miss   Landou),  Notice   of  her  Literary   Career  and 
Death  ..... 

Lee,  of  Macclesfield,  Miss  .... 

Leeds  Mercury  ..... 

Lentaigne,  Sir  John,  Correspondence 

Liberated  Africans,  Appointed  Superintendent  at  the  Havana 

Lisbon,  Residence  there  for  three  years 

Lines,  At  Parting,  63  ;  To  a  Publisher,  174 ;  Emigrant's  Grave, 
175;  Cuban  Slave  Merchant,  178;  May  Hymn,  84; 
Morning,  84;  Night,  85;  Niagara,  ;  100  The  Rescue, 
109;  Eaux  de  Vichy,  124;  Spain,  125;  Scrap-Book, 
126;  Dying  Traveller,  127;  Vale  of  Ovoca,  128; 
Lines  to  Accompany  a  Portrait,  129  ;  To  Harriet,  130 ; 
To  his  Wife,  131  ;  Death  of  an  Infant,  132  ;  Lady  Per- 
plexed, do. ;  To  Lady  Blessington,  133  ;  Father  Mathew, 
do.;  To  Cub»,  J34  ;  St.  Helena,  124;  Woman's  Work 
and  Mission,  135  ;  On  Growing  Old,  136 ;  Old  Books, 
137;  Exercise,  138;  Sweets  to  the  Sweet,  140; 
Expostulation  and  Agitation,  141  ;  The  Men  of  '98, 
142;  Eviction  Lay,  143;  The  Emigrant's,  144; 
Celtic  Race,  145  ;  Rebel's  Farewell,  146 ;  Belle  of  the 
Ocean,  147  ;  The  Day  that  is  to  Come,  148  ;  Irish  History, 
do. ;  The  Voluntary  Principle,  149  ;  Unknown,  150 ; 
Resurget,  151 ;  Farewell,  152 ;  Lines  to  a  Zealot,  152 ; 
Christmas  Day,  153  ;  Dante's  Creed,  154  ;  On  a  Death- 
bed, 165  ;  Grace,  156 ;  Old  Man's  Prayer,  do. ;  &c. 


PAGE 

150 
243,  254 

90,  200 

119,  187 

119,200 

180 

198,  210 

117 
2 
115 
237 
102 
189,  192 


22 


892 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Literary  Labours,  Dr.  Madden's  Prose 

121, 

122, 174, 175 

„            „        His  Wife's  Share  in 

123 

„            „'        Poetry 

124 

Loan  Fund  Board,  Appointed  Secretary  of 

235 

„              Eetirement  from 

275 

London,  Farewell  to,  Lines 

22 

Longford,  Barony  of,  0' Madden's 

285 

Lover,  Samuel 

180 

Lowe,  Dr.                       ... 

110 

Lyndhurst,  Lord 

177 

Lyons,  Eobert,  Reminiscences  of  "  Old  Bob  Lyons, 

"  Curran' 

3 

Patron                 .                .                .                . 

. 

4,5 

Lyons  of  Jamaica          .                .                .                . 

67 

Lyons  of  Lyonstown 

292 

IMac  Cabe,  William  Bernard 

219,  237 

M'Oarthy,  Denis  Florence 

218 

Macaulay,  Lord              .                .                .                . 

180 

M'Clean,  Captain 

114 

M'Donald,  Dr.,  New  York 

104 

M'Donnell,  D. 

205 

Madden  Family,  History  of  the 

283,  294 

M'Mahon,  Rev.  J. 

237 

Malaga,  Visit  to               .                .                . 

260 

Margravine  of  Anspach,  Notice  of 

50 

Masson,  Major 

102 

Mathews,  Charles,  Reminiscences  of 

58,  CO 

Medical  Education,  Commencement  of 

8 

„            „           Its  Continuation  in  Paris 

13 

Medical  Practice  in  Naples,  18,  25  ;  in  Turkey,  30  ; 

in  Egypt 

295 

35,  181 ;  in  St.  Leonard's  and  London 

61 

Meelick  Abbey 

Mehemet  Ali  Pasha  of  Fgypt       . 

37 

Second  Visit  to 

110 

Miley,  Rev.  D. 

218 

INDEX. 


323 


Military  Settlers,  Canada 

Milne,  Dr.       . 

Misericordite  Divinte,  Lines 

Molyneax,  Edward        .  •  •  • 

Montefiore,  Sir  Moses 

„  Correspondence  with 

Monuments,  Kemarkable,  New  York 

Moore,  Thomas 

MonaBtsries,  Spoliation  of,  in  Portugal 

„  in  Ireland 

Moreno,  Padre  ,  .  •  • 

Morning  Chronicle,  Special  Correspondent  of,  in  Portugal 
Morning  Herald,  Connexion  with 
Montmorency,  Duke  of  .  •  • 

Mulgrave,  Lord  ♦  •  •  * 

Mulvany,  George,  Artist 

Munk,  Mr.      .  .  •  •  • 

Murphy,  James,  Mount  Merrion  .  , 

„        „        of  Cork  »  ? 

Miu-phy,  Patrick,  His  Connexion  with  London  Press 
Murphy,  John 
Murray,  Lord  Charles,  .Notice  othis  Caregr  and  Death,  durin 

Greek  War  of  Independence    . 
"  Mussulman,  The,"  A  Novel,  by  R.  R.  M.  . 
"  Mutius,"  Letters  of    .  •  •  • 

Napier,  Sir  William,  Correspondence  with' 
Naples,  Residence  in,  in  1821      . 

1824        . 

1827        . 
Naples,  Reminiscences  of  its  Celebrities    .  • 

Napoleon,  Prince  Louis 

Nazareth,  Vigit  to  andXines  on  •  • 

Newby,  T.  C,  Publisher  ^  •  • 

Newgate  Prison  -  f  •  • 


98 

55 

161,  162 

55 

48,  110 

208 

105 

177,  200 

190 

296 

61 

180 

22 

52 

73 

337 

110 

155,  260 

237,27  3 

22, 121 

279 

51 
62 


166,  172 

18 

25 

48 

4!J,  55 

181,  184,187 

41,43 

237 

0,8 


su 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

New  Monthly  Magazine 

181 

New  Years'  Day,  Tnnes  on            .               . 

159 

New  York,  its  Institutions  and  Celebrities 

lOG 

„        Eeminiscences  ot  three  Visits                  • 

86,  107 

New  York      ....,, 

87,  104 

„        Medical  Profession       .               , 

88 

„        Theatrical  and  Literary  Life       •               • 

00 

Niagara          .               .              ,              .               , 

99 

Nile,  Journey  to  Assouan             •              .              , 

38 

Ninety-Eight,  Lines  on                .               .               , 

142 

North  American  Lidians,  their  Condition  and  Prospects 

106 

Normanby,  Marquis  of                 .               .              . 

216 

„         Marchioness  of           . 

315 

Novel,  Dr.  Madden's,  "  The  Mussulman  "                  • 

174 

Novels,  Lady  Blessingtons           0               •               • 

181 

O'Brien,  Wm.  Smith     .               .               . 

207,  222 

O'Callaghan,  John  Cornelius—    .              ■              •.-    . 

306 

O'Connell,  D'Orsay's  Statue  of    . 

187 

0  Connell's  Claims  on  Irish  Gratitude  Vindicated 

268 

Ode  to  the  King  of  Terrors          .               . ,              . 

16 

O'Donovan.  John          .               .               . 

214 

O'Donovan,  Professor                   .               .               • 

238 

O'Gorman,  Kichard 

280 

O'Hagan,  Lord,             .... 

215,  237 

O'Hanlon,  Canon           ...» 

267 

O'Kelly,  Mathias           .... 

237 

O'Sullivan,  W.  K.,  Professor        .              .               .              . 

837 

Palestine,  Journey  throtigh 

41 

Palmerston,  Lord          • 

80 

Paris,  Eesidehce  there,'  1821       •.               .               • 

11 

„    *     Subsecluent  Visits  to        •.              .           25 

119,  176,  192 

Paris,  Dr.       .               '.                               »               .               . 

103 

Paris,  Count  Julien  De  .              .                             • 

196 

INDEX. 


325 


Paris,  First  Visit  to,  in  1821 ,  Eesidenee  there 

Patten,  Mr.  John,  Notice  of 

Pawn  System,  West  African  Slavery 

Pedigree,  the  O'Madden  Family    . 

Peel,  Sir  Robert 

Penal  Laws,  Publication  of  History  of 

Penal  Laws,  their  operation  in  Ireland  described 

Penalty  of  Death,  Arguments  against 

Pennsylvania 

Periodical  Literature,  Irish  History  of 

Perth,  Western  Australia 

Petrie,  Dr.  George 

Petrie,  George,  Correspondence  Nvith 

Physicians,  then-  services  to  humanity 

Phipps,  Colonel 

"  Phantasmata,"  Publication  of     . 

Pictures,  Count  D'Orsay's 

Piozzi,  the  Astronomer  •      • 

Pirates,  Capture  by  Greek 

Plague,  Kesidence  in  Alexandria  during      • 

Planche,  M.  •  •  ' 

Poor  Law  System,  Irish,  in  Famine  \ears 

Portugal,  Residence  in,  from  1843  to  1847 

Powell,  Mr.  W.  •  •  '  ^,  ,■       \ 

Power,  Edmond,  Lady  Blessingtons  father,  Notice  of 

Prayer,  An  Old  Man's,  Lines 
Press,  Connexion  with  the,  as  a  Reporter    . 
Press,  as  Correspondent  of  Chi'onicle,  Portugal 
Prince  Regent,  Marriage  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
Prison,  Blackwell,  New  York,  described      . 
Newgate,  Remarkable  Visit  to 
Kilmainham,  Visit  to,  in  1859 
Prendergast,  John 
Prendergast,  W.  F.        • 
Proctor,  "  Barry  CornweU" 
Pyramids,  First  Visit  to 
Second  Visit  to 

Quin,  Dr.  Recollections  of 

Raskelly,  Dr.  •  '        -.-u    ' 

Reddington,  Sir  T.,  Correspondence  with    . 
Reilly,  Dr.,  of  Naples    . 


PAGE 

192 
304 
113 
283,  294 
187 
175 
300 
89,  272 
98 
270 
227 
213 
213 
103 
204 
259 
186 
25 
47 
36 
13 
239,  254 
189,  192 
255 
176,  178 
156 
22 
189 
53,210 
104 
7 
304 
215,237 
211 
180 
38 
HI 

54 

55 
141,142 

18,50 


326 


ll^DJBX. 


"  Belief  ComiTiittee,"  Connexion  with 

Eeligion,  Catholic,  Dr.  I\Iadden's  attachment  to 

Kepeal  Association 

Representatives  House  of  Washington 

'•  Eesurget,"  Lines 

Rescue,  The,  Lines 

Reynolds,  J.  H. 

Ilogers,  Samuel 

Rome  to  Naples  on  Foot  in  1823 

Rome,  Recollections  of,  in  1821 

„      Second  Visit  to 
Roman  Catholics,  Penal  Laws  Against,  History  of 
Russell,  Lord  John 
Russell,  Sir  William 
Ryde,  Lines  written  olT 

Sailing  Voyage  from  New  York  to  Liverpool 

Sailors,  Ill-Treatraent  of  .  .     . 

Salt,  Mr.,  Consul-General  in  Egypt 

Savanarola,  Dr.  Madden 's  Life  and  Times  of 

Savory,  T.  F. 

Seamour-i)laee,  Lady  Blessiugton's  Residence 

Seaton,  Lord 

Sea,  Lines  written  at     . 

Settlers  in  Canada 

Sheridan,  F.  C. 

Shipwreck  in  the  Atl.mtic  descrihed 

Silanchia,  0" Madden  territory 

Simmons,  B.  ... 

Sirr,  Major,  Insurrection  of  1798,  Reminiscences  of 

Slave-Trade  .. 

Slavery,  Abolition  of      . 

„        in  West  Indies  described 

„        in  Cuba,  its  Horrors 

,,       in  West  African  Settlements 
Sligo,  Marquis  of  . 

Smith,  Sydney 

Smith,  Hon.  Vernon       .  .  . 

Smith,  Jame§  and  Horace 
Smyrna,  Account  of     .  . 
Spain 
Spezzia  - ,  , .  .  , 


23Q 

279 

222 

4)3 

151 

109 

180 

177 

18 

18 

48 

17o 

177 

288 

12:3 

l(i;} 

101 
73 

257 
54 

179 
91 
19 
98 
57 

107 

298 

181 
1 
B,  81 
62 
08 
77 

113 
72 

K7 
81 

180 
27 

125 
19 


INDEX. 


397 


PAGE 

Stage  Coach-travelling,  Lines  descriptive  of                 , 

23 

Stanhope,  Lady  Hester,  Visit  to 

41 

Stanley,  Lord,  Letter  from 

113 

Stephens,  Sir  James,  Correspondence  with 

172,207,212,235 

St.  Helena      ..... 

134 

St.  Leonard's,  Residence  at          . 

61 

St.  Vincent's                   .... 

65 

St-  Marsault,  Countess  de             .                .               , 

170 

SulUvan,  Dr.  W.  K.        . 

237 

Surgeons,  College  of     . 

61 

Syria,  Visit  to                 .... 

39 

Tabor,  Mount 

43 

Tappan,  INIr.  Lewis        .... 

92 

Talma,  Eecollections  of  his  Acting 

56 

Thackeray,  W.  M.          . 

182 

Thebes,  Visit  to             .... 

38 

Theatrical  Celebrities,  Reminiscences  of 

56,  60 

Thwaites,  Henry,  Editor  Morning  Herald,  Account  of 

121,122 

Tithe  Agitation,  Ireland,  Lines  on  the 

14 

"  Travels  in  the  East  " 

63 

"  Travels  in  the  West  Indies  "       . 

72 

Tredgold,  J.  H.              . 

113 

Toronto,  Visit  to             . 

98 

Troy,  Visit  to  the  Site  of                .                .                . 

32 

Turkey,  Residence  in    . 

27,  35 

Turkish  Practice  of  Medicine 

30 

"  Turkish  Empire,  History  of,"  published,  1862 

261 

Union,  The,  Its  Effect  on  Irish  Prosperity 

1 

"  United  Irishmen,  History  of,"  Publication  of 

163 

„            „          Its  Objects  and  Results 

164 

„            „          Correspondence  respecting 

166 

United  States,  Account  of  Three  Visits  to  the 

80,  107 

Vesuvius                       .... 

25 

Versailles,  College  of    . 

192 

„          Lines  on  Revisiting    .               . 

260 

Vichy              ..... 

124 

Voyage  to  Jamaica         .... 

64 

328 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Voyage  to  America         .                .                .                . 

80 

Second  and  Third         .                .                 .                . 

102 

,,           to  Australia    .... 

2^3 

Wade,  General 

55 

Walden,  Lord  Howard  de              .                 .                . 

-204,211 

Walker,  Mr.  S.                .... 

55 

Walpole,  Horace,  cited 

55 

Walsh,  Mr.     ..... 

120 

Washington,  Irving        .... 

101 

Washington,  Account  of  Visit  to 

92 

Washington,  George      .... 

04 

Tomh  of  . 

90 

Wellington     ...... 

179,  187 

Weir,  Mr.  David             .                .                .                . 

101 

Westmacott,  the  Sculptor 

25 

West  Indies,  Residence  in             . 

65,  73 

Wilberforce     .... 

179 

Wilde,  Sir  William 

237 

Wilde,  Lady,  Letter  from               .                 ... 

217 

West  African  Mission    . 

112,  117 

Western  Australia,  Colonial  Secretaryship  of 

123 

„           Colony  of,  in  1849,  Report  on 

231 

„             „          Address  from  the  inhabitants  of 

228 

,,            „          Aborigines,  their  Treatment  by  Settlers 

230 

Woods,  Surgeon              .                .                 .                 . 

91 

Wood,  Mrs.                     .... 

99 

Woman's  Work  and  Mission,  Lines 

135 

Wreck  of  the  "  Scotia,"'  described 

107 

„      Lines  on              .                 .                 .                . 

109 

Zealot,  Lines  to  a          . 

152 

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